title: Exploring the use of shape and texture descriptors of positron emission tomography tracer distribution in imaging studies of neurodegenerative disease.
abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) data related to neurodegeneration are most often quantified using methods based on tracer kinetic modeling. In contrast, here we investigate the ability of geometry and texture-based metrics that are independent of kinetic modeling to convey useful information on disease state. The study was performed using data from Parkinson's disease subjects imaged with (11)C-dihydrotetrabenazine and (11)C-raclopride. The pattern of the radiotracer distribution in the striatum was quantified using image-based metrics evaluated over multiple regions of interest that were defined on co-registered PET and MRI images. Regression analysis showed a significant degree of correlation between several investigated metrics and clinical evaluations of the disease (p < 0.01). The best results were obtained with the first-order moment invariant of the radioactivity concentration values estimated over the full structural extent of the region as defined by MRI (R(2 )= 0.94). These results demonstrate that there is clinically relevant quantitative information in the tracer distribution pattern that can be captured using geometric and texture descriptors. Such metrics may provide an alternate and complementary data analysis approach to traditional kinetic modeling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada ivansk@physics.ubc.ca.
authors.forename: Ivan S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Klyuzhin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Marjorie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Elham
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shahinfard
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Nasim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vafai
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sossi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000378:metabolism; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
keywords: Image analysis; Parkinson’s disease; image metrics; multimodality; positron emission tomography; region of interest definition