Comparison of different methods of DatSCAN quantification

Abstract

Both programs allowed statistical differentiation between Parkinson's syndrome and essential tremor. Strict operator protocols are needed with QuantiSPECT to reduce inter- and intra-operator variation. The three-dimensional method (BRASS) gave greater concordance than the two-dimensional method (QuantiSPECT) with the visual assessment, but at a cost of increased operator time.

SNM Practice Guideline for Dopamine Transporter Imaging with 123I-Ioflupane SPECT 1.0

“…Mid-putaminal VOIs probably offer the most accurate manual results. Automated VOI systems incorporating the whole striatum using individualized VOIs, either based on the 123 I-ioflupane SPECT data or on a coregistered anatomic scan, produce more objective, observer-independent results and are faster although not widespread (32)(33)(34)(35).…”

Automated quantification with BRASS reduces equivocal reporting of DaTSCAN (123I-FP-CIT) SPECT studies

“…This software has been shown to provide consistent results independent of operator variability [10]. BRASS fits the patient data to a pre-existing template containing a number of volumes of interest (VOIs) and calculates the caudate and putamen uptake ratios (CUR and PUR respectively), where C, P and B are the average counts per voxel in the caudate nucleus, putamen and background regions, respectively.…”

“…A number of software packages exist that allow quantification of uptake in the striata [5] and different methods of quantification exist and have been compared [6]. Quantification has been shown to reduce interobserver variability in scan reporting [7] and to correlate with visual assessment [8], however to our knowledge no studies have specifically studied whether quantification can reduce the number of scans reported as equivocal.…”

Optimized, Automated Striatal Uptake Analysis Applied to SPECT Brain Scans of Parkinson's Disease Patients

“…Other investigators have focused on brain image-processing packages (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)26). In its application, OSA most closely resembles the automated analysis package reported by Koch et al (20,21).…”

“…Other investigators have developed methods to quantitate the uptake level of DATs by analyzing the associated SPECT scans (17)(18)(19)(20)(21). In this study, we tested an automated DATimaging objective striatal analysis (OSA) program specifically for 123 I-b-CIT in a large clinical cohort and compared the results with a well-established manual analysis by a trained image-processing technologist.…”