Reliability of the corticospinal tract and arcuate fasciculus reconstructed with DTI-based tractography: implications for clinical practice

Kristo, Gert; Leemans, Alexander; Gelder, Béatrice de; Raemaekers, Mathijs; Rutten, Geert‐Jan; Ramsey, Nick F.

doi:10.1007/s00330-012-2589-9

Cited by 26 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Altogether those results are consistent with previous literature (13, 52, 53), and confirm that probabilistic CSD is a useful instrument for a more consistent tractographic reconstruction in contexts like pre-surgical planning (13, 54), in case-control studies or in longitudinal analyses.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

White Matter Tissue Quantification at Low b-Values Within Constrained Spherical Deconvolution Framework

et al. 2018

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In the last decades, a number of Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) based techniques have been developed to study non-invasively human brain tissues, especially white matter (WM). In this context, Constrained Spherical Deconvolution (CSD) is recognized as being able to accurately characterize water molecules displacement, as they emerge from the observation of MR diffusion weighted (MR-DW) images. CSD is suggested to be applied on MR-DW datasets consisting of b-values around 3,000 s/mm2 and at least 45 unique diffusion weighting directions. Below such technical requirements, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DT) remains the most widely accepted model. Unlike CSD, DTI is unable to resolve complex fiber geometries within the brain, thus affecting related tissues quantification. In addition, thanks to CSD, an index called Apparent Fiber Density (AFD) can be measured to estimate intra-axonal volume fraction within WM. In standard clinical settings, diffusion based acquisitions are well below such technical requirements. Therefore, in this study we wanted to extensively compare CSD and DTI model outcomes on really low demanding MR-DW datasets, i.e., consisting of a single shell (b-value = 1,000 s/mm2) and only 30 unique diffusion encoding directions. To this end, we performed deterministic and probabilistic tractographic reconstruction of two major WM pathways, namely the Corticospinal Tract and the Arcuate Fasciculus. We estimated and analyzed tensor based features as well as, for the first time, AFD interpretability in our data. By performing multivariate statistics and tract-based ROI analysis, we demonstrate that WM quantification is affected by both the diffusion model and threshold applied to noisy tractographic maps. Consistently with existing literature, we showed that CSD outperforms DTI even in our scenario. Most importantly, for the first time we address the problem of accuracy and interpretation of AFD in a low-demanding DW setup, and show that it is still a biological meaningful measure for the analysis of intra-axonal volume even in clinical settings.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

White Matter Tissue Quantification at Low b-Values Within Constrained Spherical Deconvolution Framework

et al. 2018

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“…The different reconstructions analyzed in this work could be considered as some variants of test–retest or intra-subject repeatability, and our overlap values are in the same range as the previously reported reproducibility of tractography (e.g., Ciccarelli et al 2003; Heiervang et al 2006; Malykhin et al 2008; Kristo et al 2013a, 2013b). For multi-fiber tractography, Dice scores are known to be relatively low between scan–rescan tests, with a recent study by Kristo et al (2013b) showing overlap values of around 0.6 in both the AF and CST.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Trade-off between angular and spatial resolutions in in vivo fiber tractography

et al. 2016

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Tractography is becoming an increasingly popular method to reconstruct white matter connections in vivo. The diffusion MRI data that tractography is based on requires a high angular resolution to resolve crossing fibers whereas high spatial resolution is required to distinguish kissing from crossing fibers. However, scan time increases with increasing spatial and angular resolutions, which can become infeasible in clinical settings. Here we investigated the trade-off between spatial and angular resolutions to determine which of these factors is most worth investing scan time in. We created a unique diffusion MRI dataset with 1.0 mm isotropic resolution and a high angular resolution (100 directions) using an advanced 3D diffusion-weighted multi-slab EPI acquisition. This dataset was reconstructed to create subsets of lower angular (75, 50, and 25 directions) and lower spatial (1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mm) resolution. Using all subsets, we investigated the effects of angular and spatial resolutions in three fiber bundles—the corticospinal tract, arcuate fasciculus and corpus callosum—by analyzing the volumetric bundle overlap and anatomical correspondence between tracts. Our results indicate that the subsets of 25 and 50 directions provided inferior tract reconstructions compared with the datasets with 75 and 100 directions. Datasets with spatial resolutions of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mm were comparable, while the lowest resolution (2.5 mm) datasets had discernible inferior quality. In conclusion, we found that angular resolution appeared to be more influential than spatial resolution in improving tractography results. Spatial resolutions higher than 2.0 mm only appear to benefit multi-fiber tractography methods if this is not at the cost of decreased angular resolution.

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“…While FA is among the most commonly found metrics of white matter structure in DTI studies, Koraonkar and coworkers (Korgaonkar, Cooper et al 2012) found through independent components analysis that fiber length has a predictive accuracy of 83% when measured in major depressive disorder vs. control subjects. Furthermore, because of its crucial role in fiber-tracking algorithms and its correlation to other metrics, fiber length is considered a valuable metric for assessing the accuracy of tractography protocols (Andreisek, White et al 2009; Chen, Ding et al 2009; Colby, Soderberg et al 2012; Kristo, Leemans et al 2012). Moreover, our use of multivariate analysis was conducted in order to specifically account for such covariance and improve on the ability to detect differences between groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DTI tractography and white matter fiber tract characteristics in euthymic bipolar I patients and healthy control subjects

Torgerson

Irimia

Leow³

et al. 2012

Brain Imaging and Behavior

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With the introduction of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), structural differences in white matter (WM) architecture between psychiatric populations and healthy controls can be systematically observed and measured. In particular, DTI-tractography can be used to assess WM characteristics over the entire extent of WM tracts and aggregated fiber bundles. Using 64-direction DTI scanning in 27 participants with bipolar disorder (BD) and 26 age-and-gender-matched healthy control subjects, we compared relative length, density, and fractional anisotrophy (FA) of WM tracts involved in emotion regulation or theorized to be important neural components in BD neuropathology. We interactively isolated 22 known white matter tracts using region-of-interest placement (TrackVis software program) and then computed relative tract length, density, and integrity. BD subjects demonstrated significantly shorter WM tracts in the genu, body and splenium of the corpus callosum compared to healthy controls. Additionally, bipolar subjects exhibited reduced fiber density in the genu and body of the corpus callosum, and in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus bilaterally. In the left uncinate fasciculus, however, BD subjects exhibited significantly greater fiber density than healthy controls. There were no significant differences between groups in WM tract FA for those tracts that began and ended in the brain. The significance of differences in tract length and fiber density in BD is discussed.

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Reliability of the corticospinal tract and arcuate fasciculus reconstructed with DTI-based tractography: implications for clinical practice

Cited by 26 publications

References 48 publications

White Matter Tissue Quantification at Low b-Values Within Constrained Spherical Deconvolution Framework

White Matter Tissue Quantification at Low b-Values Within Constrained Spherical Deconvolution Framework

Trade-off between angular and spatial resolutions in in vivo fiber tractography

DTI tractography and white matter fiber tract characteristics in euthymic bipolar I patients and healthy control subjects

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