title: Multicenter stability of diffusion tensor imaging measures: a European clinical and physical phantom study.
abstract: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) detects white matter damage in neuro-psychiatric disorders, but data on reliability of DTI measures across more than two scanners are still missing. In this study we assessed multicenter reproducibility of DTI acquisitions based on a physical phantom as well as brain scans across 16 scanners. In addition, we performed DTI scans in a group of 26 patients with clinically probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 12 healthy elderly controls at one single center. We determined the variability of fractional anisotropy (FA) measures using manually placed regions of interest as well as automated tract based spatial statistics and deformation based analysis. The coefficient of variation (CV) of FA was 6.9% for the physical phantom data. The mean CV across the multicenter brain scans was 14% for tract based statistics, and 29% for deformation based analysis. The degree of variation was higher in less organized fiber tracts. Our findings suggest that a clinical and physical phantom study involving more than two scanners is indispensable to detect potential sources of bias and to reliably estimate effect size in multicenter diagnostic trials using DTI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany; DZNE, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: stefan.teipel@med.uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Stefan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Teipel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany; DZNE, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.affiliation: DKFZ, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stieltjes
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Acosta-Cabronero
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroradiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ernemann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fellgiebel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Neurology, Scientific Institute and University Hospital San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filippi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Epidemiology & Neuroimaging, Centro S. Giovanni di Dio - Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Frisoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroradiology, CIMH, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hentschel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jessen
authors.affiliation: Freiburg Brain Imaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klöppel
authors.affiliation: Institue for Clinical Radiology, University Hospital of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meindl
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Medical Technology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Petra J W
authors.initials: PJW
authors.lastname: Pouwels
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Hauenstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hampel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016880:Anisotropy; D015982:Bias; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D055815:Young Adult