title: Group comparison of cortical fiber connectivity map: An application between post-stroke patients and healthy subjects.
abstract: Structural connectome measurement combined with diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tractography allows generation of a whole-brain connectome. However, current cortical structural connectivity (SC) measurements have not been well combined with the vertex-wise multi-subjects statistical analysis. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of using group comparison vertex-wise analysis for cortical SC measurement. A fiber connectivity density (FiCD) method based on a combination of a diffusion fiber tracking technique and cortical surface-based analysis was used to measure the whole-brain cortical SC map (FiCD map). A public MRI dataset (GigaDB) was employed to evaluate the reproducibility of the FiCD method. For group comparison, 14 post-stroke patients (mean age, 68.36±7.33y) and 19 healthy participants (mean age, 66.84±8.58y) had FiCD measurement. The intergroup comparison of the FiCD map was performed using vertex-wise multi-subject statistical analysis. Reliability testing showed the mean intra- and inter-subject FiCD variability was 3.51±2.12% and 19.44±4.79%, respectively. The group comparison of the whole-brain FiCD identified cortical regions with altered FiCD values, and there was a spatial consistency between the cortical clusters with low FiCD values and the subcortical lesions of patients. This study demonstrated the feasibility of vertex-wise group comparison for evaluating cortical fiber connectivity density. The FiCD method has good intra- and inter-individual reproducibility, and accurately reflects the affected cortical regions in post-stroke patients. This method may be helpful for neuroscience research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Teng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Winnie C W
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Therese Pei Fong Chow Research Centre for Prevention of Dementia, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Vincent C T
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Mok
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Research Center for Medical Image Computing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China. Electronic address: dfwang@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Defeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China; Therese Pei Fong Chow Research Centre for Prevention of Dementia, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: shilin@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D063132:Connectome; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020521:Stroke / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
keywords: connectome; cortex; fiber connectivity map; vertex-wise statistical analysis