Does MRI scan acceleration affect power to track brain change?

Christopher R K Ching; Xue Hua; Derrek P Hibar; Chadwick P Ward; Jeffrey L Gunter; Matt A Bernstein; Clifford R Jack Jr; Michael W Weiner; Paul M Thompson; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.05.039

Does MRI scan acceleration affect power to track brain change?

Neurobiol Aging. 2015 Jan;36 Suppl 1(0 1):S167-77. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.05.039. Epub 2014 Oct 7.

Authors

Christopher R K Ching¹, Xue Hua², Derrek P Hibar², Chadwick P Ward³, Jeffrey L Gunter³, Matt A Bernstein³, Clifford R Jack Jr³, Michael W Weiner⁴, Paul M Thompson⁵; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Graduate Program, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Department of Neurology, Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, MN, USA.
⁴ Department of Radiology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA; Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND), Department Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Graduate Program, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Engineering, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: pthomp@usc.edu.

PMID: 25444601
PMCID: PMC4374606
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.05.039

Abstract

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative recently implemented accelerated T1-weighted structural imaging to reduce scan times. Faster scans may reduce study costs and patient attrition by accommodating people who cannot tolerate long scan sessions. However, little is known about how scan acceleration affects the power to detect longitudinal brain change. Using tensor-based morphometry, no significant difference was detected in numerical summaries of atrophy rates from accelerated and nonaccelerated scans in subgroups of patients with Alzheimer's disease, early or late mild cognitive impairment, or healthy controls over a 6- and 12-month scan interval. Whole-brain voxelwise mapping analyses revealed some apparent regional differences in 6-month atrophy rates when comparing all subjects irrespective of diagnosis (n = 345). No such whole-brain difference was detected for the 12-month scan interval (n = 156). Effect sizes for structural brain changes were not detectably different in accelerated versus nonaccelerated data. Scan acceleration may influence brain measures but has minimal effects on tensor-based morphometry-derived atrophy measures, at least over the 6- and 12-month intervals examined here.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Biomarker; Drug trial enrichment; Longitudinal; MRI; Neuroimaging; Scan acceleration; Tensor-based morphometry.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis*
Alzheimer Disease / pathology*
Atrophy
Brain / pathology*
Brain Mapping / methods
Cognitive Dysfunction / diagnosis
Cognitive Dysfunction / pathology
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
Female
Humans
Male
Neuroimaging / methods*
Time Factors

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding