Volume versus surface-based cortical thickness measurements: A comparative study with healthy controls and multiple sclerosis patients

Righart, Ruthger; Schmidt, Paul; Dahnke, Robert; Biberacher, Viola; Beer, A.; Buck, Dorothea; Hemmer, Bernhard; Kirschke, Jan S.; Zimmer, Claus; Gaser, Christian; Mühlau, Mark

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179590

Cited by 57 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Of note, one recently published study did not find CAT12 overestimations, in contrast to our results. Moreover, their results suggest that CAT12 CT estimations were lower compared to FreeSurfer with respect to several brain regions.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Cortical Thickness Estimations of FreeSurfer and the CAT12 Toolbox in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Controls

Seiger

Ganger

Kranz

et al. 2018

Journal of Neuroimaging

119

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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEAutomated cortical thickness (CT) measurements are often used to assess gray matter changes in the healthy and diseased human brain. The FreeSurfer software is frequently applied for this type of analysis. The computational anatomy toolbox (CAT12) for SPM, which offers a fast and easy‐to‐use alternative approach, was recently made available.METHODSIn this study, we compared region of interest (ROI)‐wise CT estimations of the surface‐based FreeSurfer 6 (FS6) software and the volume‐based CAT12 toolbox for SPM using 44 elderly healthy female control subjects (HC). In addition, these 44 HCs from the cross‐sectional analysis and 34 age‐ and sex‐matched patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were used to assess the potential of detecting group differences for each method. Finally, a test‐retest analysis was conducted using 19 HC subjects. All data were taken from the OASIS database and MRI scans were recorded at 1.5 Tesla.RESULTSA strong correlation was observed between both methods in terms of ROI mean CT estimates (R 2 = .83). However, CAT12 delivered significantly higher CT estimations in 32 of the 34 ROIs, indicating a systematic difference between both approaches. Furthermore, both methods were able to reliably detect atrophic brain areas in AD subjects, with the highest decreases in temporal areas. Finally, FS6 as well as CAT12 showed excellent test‐retest variability scores.CONCLUSIONAlthough CT estimations were systematically higher for CAT12, this study provides evidence that this new toolbox delivers accurate and robust CT estimates and can be considered a fast and reliable alternative to FreeSurfer.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Cortical Thickness Estimations of FreeSurfer and the CAT12 Toolbox in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Controls

Seiger

Ganger

Kranz

et al. 2018

Journal of Neuroimaging

119

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“…As shown in Table 2, differences in scanner manufacturer and platform (Siemens, Philips, and GE), eld strength (3.0 T and 1.5 T), head coil (8-, 12-, 32-, and 64-channel), MR sequence (MPRAGE, FFE, TFE, FLASH, and FSPGR), TR/TE, and voxel size (from 1.33 × 1.0 × 1.0 to 0.89 × 0.89 × 0.8 mm 3 ) across studies were noted. Besides, variations in computing workstation types [65], operating systems [65,66], processing pipelines and software packages [65,67,68], the extent of smoothing [69], and statistical strategies [10,16,17,22] may produce inconsistent results. These differences make direct comparisons between the different studies di cult.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortical thickness in migraine: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

Sheng

Shi³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Cortical thickness (CTh) analysis is a popular method to characterize brain morphometry. Many studies have been performed to investigate CTh abnormalities in migraine. However, the results from these studies were not consistent and even conflicting. These divergent results hinder us from obtaining a clear picture of brain morphometry regarding CTh alterations in migraine. Coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA) is a promising technique to quantitatively pool individual neuroimaging studies to identify consistent brain areas involved. Methods Electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, and SinoMed) and other sources (bioRxiv and reference lists of relevant articles and reviews) were systematically searched for studies that compared regional CTh differences between patients with migraine and healthy controls (HCs) up to May 15, 2020. A CBMA was performed using the Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) approach. Results In total, we identified 16 studies with 17 datasets reported that were eligible for the CBMA. The 17 datasets included 872 patients with migraine (average sample size 51.3, mean age 39.6 years, 721 females) and 949 HCs (average sample size 59.3, mean age 44.2 years, 680 females). The CBMA detected no statistically significant consistency of CTh alterations in patients with migraine relative to HCs. Sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis verified this result to be robust. Meta-regression analyses revealed that this CBMA result was not confounded by age, gender, aura, attack frequency per month, and illness duration. Conclusions Our CBMA adds to the evidence of the replication crisis in neuroimaging research that is increasingly recognized. The current evidence suggests that CTh is not a reliable biomarker of migraine. Many potential confounders, such as underpowered sample size, heterogeneous patient selection criteria, and differences in imaging collection and methodology, may contribute to the inconsistencies of CTh alterations in migraine, which merit attention before planning future research on this topic.

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“…In addition, we used CAT12 to render and analyze surface-based cortical thickness maps [30]. We recently validated this technique in MS patients [31]. For smoothing of surface images, we used a Gaussian Kernel of 8 mm.…”

Section: Image Acquisition and Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive impairment in early MS: contribution of white matter lesions, deep grey matter atrophy, and cortical atrophy

et al. 2020

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Background Cognitive impairment (CI) is a frequent and debilitating symptom in MS. To better understand the neural bases of CI in MS, this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study aimed to identify and quantify related structural brain changes and to investigate their relation to each other. Methods We studied 51 patients with CI and 391 patients with cognitive preservation (CP). We analyzed three-dimensional T1-weighted and FLAIR scans at 3 Tesla. We determined mean cortical thickness as well as volumes of cortical grey matter (GM), deep GM including thalamus, cerebellar cortex, white matter, corpus callosum, and white matter lesions (WML). We also analyzed GM across the whole brain by voxel-wise and surface-based techniques. Results Mean disease duration was 5 years. Comparing MS patients with CI and CP, we found higher volumes of WML, lower volumes of deep and cortical GM structures, and lower volumes of the corpus callosum (all corrected p values < 0.05). Effect sizes were largest for WML and thalamic volume (standardized ß values 0.25 and − 0.25). By logistic regression analysis including both WML and thalamic volume, we found a significant effect only for WML volume. Inclusion of the interaction term of WML and thalamic volume increased the model fit and revealed a highly significant interaction of WML and thalamic volume. Moreover, voxel-wise and surface-based comparisons of MS patients with CI and CP showed regional atrophy of both deep and cortical GM independent of WML volume and overall disability, but effect sizes were lower. Conclusion Although several mechanisms contribute to CI already in the early stage of MS, WML seem to be the main driver with thalamic atrophy primarily intensifying this effect.

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Volume versus surface-based cortical thickness measurements: A comparative study with healthy controls and multiple sclerosis patients

Cited by 57 publications

References 25 publications

Cortical Thickness Estimations of FreeSurfer and the CAT12 Toolbox in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Controls

Cortical Thickness Estimations of FreeSurfer and the CAT12 Toolbox in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Controls

Cortical thickness in migraine: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

Cognitive impairment in early MS: contribution of white matter lesions, deep grey matter atrophy, and cortical atrophy

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