Manera, A. L. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2019

CerebrA: Accurate registration and manual label correction of Mindboggle-101 atlas for MNI-ICBM152 template

Accurate anatomical atlases are recognized as important tools in brain-imaging research. They are widely used to estimate disease-specific changes and therefore, are of great relevance in extracting regional information on volumetric variations in clinical cohorts in comparison to healthy populations. The use of high spatial resolution magnetic resonance imaging and the improvement in data preprocessing methods have enabled the study of structural volume changes on a wide range of disorders, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases where different brain morphometry analyses are being broadly used in an effort to improve diagnostic biomarkers. In the present dataset, we introduce the Cerebrum Atlas (CerebrA) along with the MNI-ICBM2009c average template. MNI-ICBM2009c is the most recent version of the MNI-ICBM152 brain average, providing a higher level of anatomical details. Cerebra is based on an accurate non-linear registration of cortical and subcortical labelling from Mindboggle 101 to the symmetric MNI-ICBM2009c atlas, followed by manual editing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

DEFORMATION BASED MORPHOMETRY STUDY OF LONGITUDINAL MRI CHANGES IN BEHAVIORAL VARIANT FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA

ObjectiveTo objectively quantify how cerebral volume loss could assist with clinical diagnosis and clinical trial design in the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).\n\nMethodsWe applied deformation-based morphometric analyses with robust registration to precisely quantify the magnitude and pattern of atrophy in patients with bvFTD as compared to cognitively normal controls (CNCs), to assess the progression of atrophy over one year follow up and to generate clinical trial sample size estimates to detect differences for the structures most sensitive to change. This study included 203 subjects - 70 bvFTD and 133 CNCs - with a total of 482 timepoints from the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative.\n\nResultsDeformation based morphometry (DBM) revealed significant atrophy in the frontal lobes, insula, medial and anterior temporal regions bilaterally in bvFTD subjects compared to controls with outstanding subcortical involvement. We provide detailed information on regional changes per year. In both cross-sectional analysis and over a one-year follow-up period, ventricle expansion was the most prominent differentiator of bvFTD from controls and a sensitive marker of disease progression.\n\nConclusionsAutomated measurement of ventricular expansion is a sensitive and reliable marker of disease progression in bvFTD to be used in clinical trials for potential disease modifying drugs, as well as possibly to implement in clinical practice. Ventricular expansion measured with DBM provides the lowest published estimated sample size for clinical trial design to detect significant differences over one and two years.

neuroscience↗