Reliability and Reproducibility of Neuromelanin-Sensitive Imaging of the Substantia Nigra: A Comparison of Three Different Sequences.

Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) of the substantia nigra provides a noninvasive way to acquire an indirect measure of dopamine functioning. Despite the potential of NM-MRI as a candidate biomarker for dopaminergic pathology, studies about its reproducibility are sparse. To assess the test-retest reproducibility of three commonly used NM-MRI sequences and evaluate three analysis methods. Prospective study. A total of 11 healthy participants age between 20-27 years. 3.0T; NM-MRI gradient recalled echo (GRE) with magnetization transfer (MT) pulse; NM-MRI turbo spin echo (TSE) with MT pulse; NM-MRI TSE without MT pulse. Participants were scanned twice with a 3-week interval. Manual analysis, threshold analysis, and voxelwise analysis were performed for volume and contrast ratio (CR) measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated for test-retest and inter- and intrarater variability. The GRE sequence achieved the highest contrast and lowest variability (4.9-5.7%) and showed substantial to almost perfect test-retest ICC (0.72-0.90) for CR measurements. For volume measurements, the manual analysis showed a higher variability (10.7-17.9%) and scored lower test-retest ICCs (-0.13-0.73) than the other analysis methods. The threshold analysis showed higher test-retest ICC (0.77) than the manual analysis for the volume measurements. NM-MRI is a highly reproducible measure, especially when using the GRE sequence and CR measurements. Volume measurements appear to be more sensitive to inter/intrarater variability and variability in placement and orientation of the NM-MRI slab. The threshold analysis appears to be the best alternative for volume analysis. 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 1. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Citation

Marieke van der Pluijm, Clifford Cassidy, Melissa Zandstra, Elon Wallert, Kora de Bruin, Jan Booij, Lieuwe de Haan, Guillermo Horga, Elsmarieke van de Giessen. Reliability and Reproducibility of Neuromelanin-Sensitive Imaging of the Substantia Nigra: A Comparison of Three Different Sequences. Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI. 2021 Mar;53(3):712-721

Mesh Tags

Substances

PMID: 33037730

search → result