title: Test-retest reliability of freesurfer measurements within and between sites: Effects of visual approval process.
abstract: In the last decade, many studies have used automated processes to analyze magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data such as cortical thickness, which is one indicator of neuronal health. Due to the convenience of image processing software (e.g., FreeSurfer), standard practice is to rely on automated results without performing visual inspection of intermediate processing. In this work, structural MRIs of 40 healthy controls who were scanned twice were used to determine the test-retest reliability of FreeSurfer-derived cortical measures in four groups of subjects-those 25 that passed visual inspection (approved), those 15 that failed visual inspection (disapproved), a combined group, and a subset of 10 subjects (Travel) whose test and retest scans occurred at different sites. Test-retest correlation (TRC), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and percent difference (PD) were used to measure the reliability in the Destrieux and Desikan-Killiany (DK) atlases. In the approved subjects, reliability of cortical thickness/surface area/volume (DK atlas only) were: TRC (0.82/0.88/0.88), ICC (0.81/0.87/0.88), PD (0.86/1.19/1.39), which represent a significant improvement over these measures when disapproved subjects are included. Travel subjects' results show that cortical thickness reliability is more sensitive to site differences than the cortical surface area and volume. To determine the effect of visual inspection on sample size required for studies of MRI-derived cortical thickness, the number of subjects required to show group differences was calculated. Significant differences observed across imaging sites, between visually approved/disapproved subjects, and across regions with different sizes suggest that these measures should be used with caution.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Zafer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Iscan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
authors.forename: Tony B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
authors.forename: Alexandria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kendrick
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szeglin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Hanzhang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trivedi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fava
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.|Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Myrna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weissman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Benji T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Kurian
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weyandt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toups
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Carmody
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
authors.forename: Melvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McInnis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cusin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Oquendo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
authors.forename: Ramin V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Parsey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.|Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: DeLorenzo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: FreeSurfer; cerebral cortical surface area; cerebral cortical thickness; cerebral cortical volume; multisite MRI; test-retest reliability