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A Fully Automated, Atlas-Based Approach for Superior Cerebellar Peduncle Evaluation in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
G Nicoletti1, M E Caligiuri2, A Cherubini2
1From the Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology (G.N., M.E.C., A.C., F.N., M.S., A.Q.), National Research Council, Catanzaro, Italy g.nicoletti@unicz.it.
AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology
|December 31, 2016
Summary
An automated tool assesses superior cerebellar peduncle integrity in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) subtypes and Parkinson disease. This method aids in differentiating PSP-parkinsonism from PSP-Richardson syndrome and Parkinson disease.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Neurology
- Medical Technology
Background:
- Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) involves superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) damage, with distinct alterations in Richardson syndrome (PSP-RS) and parkinsonism (PSP-P) subtypes.
- Differentiating these PSP subtypes and from Parkinson disease (PD) is clinically important.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an automated tool for assessing SCP integrity using multimodal MRI.
- To evaluate the tool's performance in distinguishing between PSP-RS, PSP-P, PD, and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Structural and diffusion MRI data were acquired from patients with PSP-RS (n=21), PSP-P (n=9), PD (n=20), and healthy controls (n=30).
- A fully automated pipeline identified the SCPs, extracting volume, mean diffusivity (MD), and fractional anisotropy (FA).
- Linear discriminant analysis was used to assess the discriminative power of these metrics.
Main Results:
- PSP-RS patients showed significant SCP alterations (decreased volume and FA, increased MD) compared to PD and controls.
- PSP-P patients had reduced SCP volume and FA compared to PD and controls.
- PSP-RS exhibited significantly different FA and MD in the left SCP compared to PSP-P.
- Discriminant analysis achieved 70% accuracy in differentiating PSP-P from PSP-RS and 74% from PD.
Conclusions:
- An automated approach for extracting multimodal MRI metrics from the SCP is feasible in parkinsonian disorders.
- SCP structural and diffusion MRI metrics show potential for computer-aided diagnosis of PSP subtypes.
- These measures can aid in differentiating PSP-P from PD.
