Differential tractography pipelines study in asymptomatic individuals with cerebral small vessel disease
Introduction: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is frequently discovered as an asymptomatic (‘silent’) finding during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning. Diffusion-based MRI, such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), is an emerging neuroimaging technique to detect and evaluate the C...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/57127/1/AMANINA%20AHMAD%20SAFRIl-24%20pages.pdf |
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| Summary: | Introduction: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is frequently discovered as an
asymptomatic (‘silent’) finding during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning.
Diffusion-based MRI, such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), is an emerging neuroimaging
technique to detect and evaluate the CSVD manifestations, such as white matter hyperintensities
(WMHs). DTI has been used progressively, but there is no gold standard for optimising the DTI
pipeline processing, especially in the CSVD study. Therefore, to make the best use of DTI,
several technical and methodological considerations must be made.
Objective: The goal of this study is to establish a series of DTI pipeline processing
either in a single or a combination of multiple well-established software packages in order to
study their compatibility, reproducibility, and reliability in the assessment of white matter
ischaemic integrity in asymptomatic CSVD.
Methods: Sixty (n = 60) asymptomatic people (mean age, 39.82 years old ± 11.32) were
recruited and had their brains scanned with a 3T MRI scanner. Twenty (n = 20) of the
participants had WMHs. Four pipeline processing were established: P1(MedINRIA), P2 (DSI
Studio), P3 (DTI Toolkit and TrackVis), and P4 (3Dslicer).
Results: Each established DTI pipeline processing profile and user interface
differences were discussed, including the programming language used, estimated total
processing times, and their strengths and weaknesses. The comparison between each of the DTI
pipelines processing was determined to be P2 as the best among the other pipelines processing
used in this study based on the highest relative score of user interface differences. P2 also has a
good reliability score (α = 0.86).
Conclusion: This study established the compatibility, reproducibility, and reliability of
established DTI pipelines in the assessment of white matter ischemic integrity in apparently
asymptomatic CSVD. It provides a comprehensive analysis that can improve and standardise
the identification of WMHs and allow for a more robust white matter integrity assessment. Our
findings show that the acceptable reliability score in the established DTI pipelined processing
is P2 (DSI Studio), which can serve as an ideal pipeline processing to assess white matter
tractography in CSVD. |
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