title: Repeatability of Brain Volume Measurements Made with the Atlas-based Method from T1-weighted Images Acquired Using a 0.4 Tesla Low Field MR Scanner.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An understanding of the repeatability of measured results is important for both the atlas-based and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods of magnetic resonance (MR) brain volumetry. However, many recent studies that have investigated the repeatability of brain volume measurements have been performed using static magnetic fields of 1-4 tesla, and no study has used a low-strength static magnetic field. The aim of this study was to investigate the repeatability of measured volumes using the atlas-based method and a low-strength static magnetic field (0.4 tesla).
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten healthy volunteers participated in this study. Using a 0.4 tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and a quadrature head coil, three-dimensional T1-weighted images (3D-T1WIs) were obtained from each subject, twice on the same day. VBM8 software was used to construct segmented normalized images [gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) images]. The regions-of-interest (ROIs) of GM, WM, CSF, hippocampus (HC), orbital gyrus (OG), and cerebellum posterior lobe (CPL) were generated using WFU PickAtlas. The percentage change was defined as[100 × (measured volume with first segmented image - mean volume in each subject)/(mean volume in each subject)]The average percentage change was calculated as the percentage change in the 6 ROIs of the 10 subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean of the average percentage changes for each ROI was as follows: GM, 0.556%; WM, 0.324%; CSF, 0.573%; HC, 0.645%; OG, 1.74%; and CPL, 0.471%. The average percentage change was higher for the orbital gyrus than for the other ROIs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We consider that repeatability of the atlas-based method is similar between 0.4 and 1.5 tesla MR scanners. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that the level of repeatability with a 0.4 tesla MR scanner is adequate for the estimation of brain volume change by the atlas-based method.
authors: School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University.
authors: Masami
authors: M
authors: Goto
authors: Makoto
authors: M
authors: Suzuki
authors: Shinya
authors: S
authors: Mizukami
authors: Osamu
authors: O
authors: Abe
authors: Shigeki
authors: S
authors: Aoki
authors: Tosiaki
authors: T
authors: Miyati
authors: Michinari
authors: M
authors: Fukuda
authors: Tsutomu
authors: T
authors: Gomi
authors: Tohoru
authors: T
authors: Takeda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000716:Anatomy, Artistic; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D055815:Young Adult