title: Reproducibility of the Structural Connectome Reconstruction across Diffusion Methods.
abstract: Analysis of the structural connectomes can lead to powerful insights about the brain's organization and damage. However, the accuracy and reproducibility of constructing the structural connectome done with different acquisition and reconstruction techniques is not well defined. In this work, we evaluated the reproducibility of the structural connectome techniques by performing test-retest (same day) and longitudinal studies (after 1 month) as well as analyzing graph-based measures on the data acquired from 22 healthy volunteers (6 subjects were used for the longitudinal study). We compared connectivity matrices and tract reconstructions obtained with the most typical acquisition schemes used in clinical application: diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI), and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI). We observed that all techniques showed high reproducibility in the test-retest analysis (correlation >.9). However, HARDI was the only technique with low variability (2%) in the longitudinal assessment (1-month interval). The intraclass coefficient analysis showed the highest reproducibility for the DTI connectome, however, with more sparse connections than HARDI and DSI. Qualitative (neuroanatomical) assessment of selected tracts confirmed the quantitative results showing that HARDI managed to detect most of the analyzed fiber groups and fanning fibers. In conclusion, we found that HARDI acquisition showed the most balanced trade-off between high reproducibility of the connectome, higher rate of path detection and of fanning fibers, and intermediate acquisition times (10-15 minutes), although at the cost of higher appearance of aberrant fibers.
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology, Institut d'Investigacions Biomedica August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Prčkovska
authors.affiliation: Mint Labs S.L, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Surgical Neuroanatomy, Human Anatomy, and Embryology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puigdellivol Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Mint Labs S.L, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology, Institut d'Investigacions Biomedica August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Magi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andorra
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology, Institut d'Investigacions Biomedica August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Eloy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martinez-Heras
authors.affiliation: BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.|Biomedical Imaging Group, University of Barcelona, CIBER-BBN, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Falcon
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Surgical Neuroanatomy, Human Anatomy, and Embryology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prats-Galino
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology, Institut d'Investigacions Biomedica August Pi Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Villoslada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D063132:Connectome / Q000379:methods*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI); diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI); high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI); human connectome tractography