Data quality in diffusion tensor imaging studies of the preterm brain: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundTo study early neurodevelopment in preterm infants, evaluation of brain maturation and injury is increasingly performed using diffusion tensor imaging, for which the reliability of underlying data is paramount.ObjectiveTo review the literature to evaluate acquisition and processing methodology in diffusion tensor imaging studies of preterm infants.Materials and methodsWe searched the Embase, Medline, Web of Science and Cochrane databases for relevant papers published between 2003 and 2013. The following keywords were included in our search: prematurity, neuroimaging, brain, and diffusion tensor imaging.ResultsWe found 74 diffusion tensor imaging studies in preterm infants meeting our inclusion criteria. There was wide variation in acquisition and processing methodology, and we found incomplete reporting of these settings. Nineteen studies (26%) reported the use of neonatal hardware. Data quality assessment was not reported in 13 (18%) studies. Artefacts-correction and data-exclusion was not reported in 33 (45%) and 18 (24%) studies, respectively. Tensor estimation algorithms were reported in 56 (76%) studies but were often suboptimal.ConclusionDiffusion tensor imaging acquisition and processing settings are incompletely described in current literature, vary considerably, and frequently do not meet the highest standards.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00247-015-3307-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cerebral White Matter Maturation Patterns in Preterm Infants: An MRI T2 Relaxation Anisotropy and Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

“…The observation that DTI indices obtained at termequivalent age imply retarded WM maturation in preterm infants has been made in other studies. 9,10 Many have focused on selected WM regions, often the PLIC, CST, or CC (see Table 2). However, there have been limited efforts to combine T2, in particular, so the anisotropy of T2, with DTI, across an entire WM atlas, to build a high statistical power classifier for prematurity.…”

“…8 Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been applied in studies of the developing brain, with the consistent result that diffusivities reduce rapidly, and fractional anisotropy (FA) increases rapidly, with GA across WM, though the rate and marginal mean is regionally dependent. 9,10 Decreasing radial diffusivity (RD) and increasing FA are reflective of the tortuosity imposed on water motion by the myelin sheath. Axial diffusivity (AxD) generally remains higher, decreasing more slowly.…”

A novel measure of reliability in Diffusion Tensor Imaging after data rejections due to subject motion

“…Computation of voxel-wise CN variations could disclose this, hence holding significant promise for improving the reliability and interpretation of DTI analyses. Insufficient means or mere absence of quality control to avoid artefactual data in DTI (Jones and Cercignani, 2010) has recently raised concerns among clinical research community (Heemskerk et al 2013;Pieterman et al, 2015;Roalf et al, 2016), and it is obvious that such procedures will need to become standard components of future guidelines of evidence based clinical research.…”

Evaluation of a new method for librarian‐mediated literature searches for systematic reviews

“…Sometimes, these differences were caused by an update of the search strategies by the authors. For example, in the review by Pieterman et al, 17 references were not found in our EndNote library, as they were of a later publication date than the last search date in our system. When correcting the data in the ESM results for the references not retrieved via our database searches, the number of included references showed only minor changes and the difference was still statistically significant.…”