title: A comparison of the cingulum tract in ALS-B patients and controls using kernel matching.
abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive motor neuron disease with poor prognosis. Previous DW-MRI based studies in ALS on WM tracts showed a decrease of FA in tracts related to the motor system. Recent evidence suggests that extra-motor tracts are also affected by ALS. This paper aims to analyse the cingulum tracts of ALS patients and controls. To do so, we introduce kernel matching, a novel method to obtain optimal correspondence between the white matter tracts. The orientation of tract tensors in atlas space as well as the lobal tract shape are employed as prior information. The method proved successful to reduce the large variance of tensor shape features along the cinguli emanating from registration errors. Only after applying the proposed kernel matching method we found a significant increase in the tensor norm of both cinguli. We hypothesize that the degeneration of fibers increases tensor norm.
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Imaging Group, Delft University of Technology, NL.
authors.forename: Sander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Noorden
authors.forename: Matthan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caan
authors.forename: Maaike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Graaff
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van Vliet
authors.forename: Frans
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vos
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity