| 1. |
- Lätt, Jimmy, et al.
(författare)
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Regional values of diffusional kurtosis estimates in the healthy brain.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. - : Wiley. - 1522-2586 .- 1053-1807. ; 37:3, s. 610-618
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PURPOSE: To provide estimates of the diffusional kurtosis in the healthy brain in anatomically defined areas and list these along previously reported values in pathologies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six volunteers (mean age = 33.1 years; range, 19-64 years) underwent diffusional kurtosis imaging. Mean kurtosis (MK), radial kurtosis (RK), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and fractional anisotropy (FA) were determined in 26 anatomical structures. Parameter estimates were assessed regarding age dependence. RESULTS: MK varied from 1.38 in the splenium of the corpus callosum to 0.66 in the caudate head, MD varied from 0.68 to 0.62 μm(2) /ms and FA from 0.87 to 0.29. MK, and FA showed a strong positive correlation, RK and RD a strong negative correlation. Parameter estimates showed age correlation in some regions; also the average MK and RK for all WM and all GM areas, respectively, were negatively correlated with age. CONCLUSION: DKI parameter estimates MK and RK varied depending on the anatomical region and varied with age in pooled WM and GM data. MK estimates in the internal capsule, corpus callosum, and thalamus were consistent with previous studies. The range of values of MK and RK in healthy brain overlapped with that in pathologies. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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| 2. |
- Löve, Askell, et al.
(författare)
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Hybrid iterative reconstruction algorithm in brain CT: a radiation dose reduction and image quality assessment study.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Acta radiologica (Stockholm, Sweden : 1987). - : SAGE Publications. - 1600-0455 .- 0284-1851.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms improve image quality and allow for radiation dose reduction in CT. Dose reduction is particularly challenging in brain CT where good low-contrast resolution is essential. Ideally, evaluation of image quality combines objective measurements and subjective assessment of clinically relevant quality criteria. Subjective assessment is associated with various pitfalls and biases.
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| 3. |
- Mårtensson, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Spatial analysis of diffusion tensor tractography statistics along the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus with application in progressive supranuclear palsy
- 2013
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Ingår i: Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0968-5243 .- 1352-8661. ; 26:6, s. 527-537
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of the study was to develop a method for analysis of diffusion parameters along white matter (WM) tracts, using spatial normalization based on anatomical landmarks, and to introduce the apparent area coefficient (AAC). The method's applicability was tested in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFO) in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and healthy controls (HCs). A framework for analysis of diffusion parameters was developed. Spatial normalization of the tracts was performed using anatomical landmarks, to avoid deformations caused by cerebral atrophy. Initially, 38 HCs were used to optimize a threshold for the minimal size of regions that differ between groups. The fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, AAC, and the hemispheric asymmetry index (AI), were compared between 11 PSP patients and 15 HCs. The method was feasible for analysis of PSP patients and HCs. The AI showed that the observed hemispheric asymmetry of AAC was significantly larger in PSP patients compared with HCs in small regions of the IFO. The method was successfully employed for analysis of diffusion parameters along the IFO in a patient group. This method can be potentially useful in studies of WM diseases, with or without cerebral atrophy.
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| 4. |
- Nilsson, Markus, et al.
(författare)
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Noninvasive mapping of water diffusional exchange in the human brain using filter-exchange imaging.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. - : Wiley. - 1522-2594 .- 0740-3194. ; 69:6, s. 1572-1580
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the first in vivo application of the filter-exchange imaging protocol for diffusion MRI. The protocol allows noninvasive mapping of the rate of water exchange between microenvironments with different self-diffusivities, such as the intracellular and extracellular spaces in tissue. Since diffusional water exchange across the cell membrane is a fundamental process in human physiology and pathophysiology, clinically feasible and noninvasive imaging of the water exchange rate would offer new means to diagnose disease and monitor treatment response in conditions such as cancer and edema. The in vivo use of filter-exchange imaging was demonstrated by studying the brain of five healthy volunteers and one intracranial tumor (meningioma). Apparent exchange rates in white matter range from 0.8 ± 0.08 s(-1) in the internal capsule, to 1.6 ± 0.11 s(-1) for frontal white matter, indicating that low values are associated with high myelination. Solid tumor displayed values of up to 2.9 ± 0.8 s(-1) . In white matter, the apparent exchange rate values suggest intra-axonal exchange times in the order of seconds, confirming the slow exchange assumption in the analysis of diffusion MRI data. We propose that filter-exchange imaging could be used clinically to map the water exchange rate in pathologies. Filter-exchange imaging may also be valuable for evaluating novel therapies targeting the function of aquaporins. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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| 5. |
- Nilsson, Markus, et al.
(författare)
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The role of tissue microstructure and water exchange in biophysical modelling of diffusion in white matter.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Magma. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1352-8661. ; 26:4, s. 345-370
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biophysical models that describe the outcome of white matter diffusion MRI experiments have various degrees of complexity. While the simplest models assume equal-sized and parallel axons, more elaborate ones may include distributions of axon diameters and axonal orientation dispersions. These microstructural features can be inferred from diffusion-weighted signal attenuation curves by solving an inverse problem, validated in several Monte Carlo simulation studies. Model development has been paralleled by microscopy studies of the microstructure of excised and fixed nerves, confirming that axon diameter estimates from diffusion measurements agree with those from microscopy. However, results obtained in vivo are less conclusive. For example, the amount of slowly diffusing water is lower than expected, and the diffusion-encoded signal is apparently insensitive to diffusion time variations, contrary to what may be expected. Recent understandings of the resolution limit in diffusion MRI, the rate of water exchange, and the presence of microscopic axonal undulation and axonal orientation dispersions may, however, explain such apparent contradictions. Knowledge of the effects of biophysical mechanisms on water diffusion in tissue can be used to predict the outcome of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) studies. Alterations of DTI or DKI parameters found in studies of pathologies such as ischemic stroke can thus be compared with those predicted by modelling. Observations in agreement with the predictions strengthen the credibility of biophysical models; those in disagreement could provide clues of how to improve them. DKI is particularly suited for this purpose; it is performed using higher b-values than DTI, and thus carries more information about the tissue microstructure. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on the current understanding of how various properties of the tissue microstructure and the rate of water exchange between microenvironments are reflected in diffusion MRI measurements. We focus on the use of biophysical models for extracting tissue-specific parameters from data obtained with single PGSE sequences on clinical MRI scanners, but results obtained with animal MRI scanners are also considered. While modelling of white matter is the central theme, experiments on model systems that highlight important aspects of the biophysical models are also reviewed.
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| 6. |
- Santillo, Alexander Frizell, et al.
(författare)
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Diffusion Tensor Tractography versus Volumetric Imaging in the Diagnosis of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia
- 2013
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:7, s. e66932-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- MRI diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies of white matter integrity in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia have consistently shown involvement of frontal and temporal white matter, corresponding to regional loss of cortical volume. Volumetric imaging has a suboptimal sensitivity as a diagnostic tool and thus we wanted to explore if DTI is a better method to discriminate patients and controls than volumetric imaging. We examined the anterior cingulum bundle in 14 patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and 22 healthy controls using deterministic manual diffusion tensor tractography, and compared DTI parameters with two measures of cortical atrophy, VBM and cortical thickness, of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Statistically significant changes between patients and controls were detected in all DTI parameters, with large effect sizes. ROC-AUC was for the best DTI parameters: 0.92 (fractional anisotropy) to 0.97 (radial diffusivity), 0.82 for the best cortical parameter, VBM of the ACC. Results from the AUC were confirmed with binary logistic regression analysis including demographic variables, but only for fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. Ability to classify patient/nonpatient status was significantly better for mean diffusivity vs. VBM (p = 0.031), and borderline significant for fractional anisotropy vs. VBM (p = 0.062). The results indicate that DTI could offer advantages in comparison with the assessment of cortical volume in differentiating patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and controls.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Szczepankiewicz, Filip, et al.
(författare)
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Variability in diffusion kurtosis imaging: Impact on study design, statistical power and interpretation.
- 2013
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Ingår i: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-9572 .- 1053-8119. ; 76:1, s. 145-154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is an emerging technique with the potential to quantify properties of tissue microstructure that may not be observable using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In order to help design DKI studies and improve interpretation of DKI results, we employed statistical power analysis to characterize three aspects of variability in four DKI parameters; the mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy, mean kurtosis, and radial kurtosis. First, we quantified the variability in terms of the group size required to obtain a statistical power of 0.9. Second, we investigated the relative contribution of imaging and post-processing noise to the total variance, in order to estimate the benefits of longer scan times versus the inclusion of more subjects. Third, we evaluated the potential benefit of including additional covariates such as the size of the structure when testing for differences in group means. The analysis was performed in three major white matter structures of the brain: the superior cingulum, the corticospinal tract, and the mid-sagittal corpus callosum, extracted using diffusion tensor tractography and DKI data acquired in a healthy cohort. The results showed heterogeneous variability across and within the white matter structures. Thus, the statistical power varies depending on parameter and location, which is important to consider if a pathogenesis pattern is inferred from DKI data. In the data presented, inter-subject differences contributed more than imaging noise to the total variability, making it more efficient to include more subjects rather than extending the scan-time per subject. Finally, strong correlations between DKI parameters and the structure size were found for the cingulum and corpus callosum. Structure size should thus be considered when quantifying DKI parameters, either to control for its potentially confounding effect, or as a means of reducing unexplained variance.
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| 10. |
- Wahlund, Lars-Olof, et al.
(författare)
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Strukturell hjärnavbildning kan förbättra diagnostiken vid demens
- 2013
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Ingår i: Läkartidningen. - 0023-7205 .- 1652-7518. ; 110:CEY4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ökad kunskap om demenssjukdomar leder till att de diagnostiska kriterierna förändras. Diagnostiken kan förbättras med hjälp av hjärnavbildningsfynd.Med datortomografi (DT) och magnetisk resonanstomografi (MRT) kan medial temporallobsatrofi, global cerebral atrofi och förändringar i vit substans visualiseras och kvantifieras.För att ge optimal information om dessa förändringar krävs ett strukturerat radiologiskt DT-/MR-utlåtande. Imaging Cognitive Impairment Network (ICINET) har som huvudmål att föreslå ett standardiserat MRT-protokoll och kliniska utvärderingsverktyg (visuella skattningsskalor för MRT och DT).
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