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Test-retest reliability of myelin imaging in the human spinal cord: Measurement errors versus region- and

Simon Lévy1,2, Marie-Claude Guertin3, Ali Khatibi2,4,5,6

  • 1NeuroPoly Lab, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.

Plos One
|January 3, 2018
PubMed
Abstract

Insights

Quantitative MRI metrics for spinal cord myelin, including T1, Magnetization Transfer Ratio (MTR), and Macromolecular Tissue Volume (MTV), show measurement errors comparable to biological differences. This highlights challenges in spinal cord myelin imaging and suggests standardized statistical guidelines are needed for multi-center studies.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Quantitative MRI

Background:

  • Myelin imaging in the human spinal cord is crucial for understanding neurological diseases.
  • Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (qMRI) metrics like T1, Magnetization Transfer Ratio (MTR), saturation imposed by an off-resonance pulse (MTsat), and Macromolecular Tissue Volume (MTV) are sensitive to myelin content.
  • Assessing the precision and reliability of these metrics is essential for clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To establish a statistical framework for evaluating the precision of T1, MTR, MTsat, and MTV in the human spinal cord.
  • To compare the reliability of different myelin-sensitive MRI metrics across various spinal cord regions and age groups.

Main Methods:

  • Thirty-three healthy subjects (young and elderly) underwent 3T MRI scans.
  • Sixteen subjects were rescanned to assess test-retest repeatability.
  • Statistical reliability indexes, including Minimal Detectable Change (MDC), were calculated for each metric within different white matter (WM) sub-regions.

Main Results:

  • The Minimal Detectable Change (MDC) values for T1, MTR, MTsat, and MTV were 105.7ms, 2.77%, 0.37%, and 4.08%, respectively.
  • Observed differences between white matter regions or age groups were often comparable to or smaller than the MDC.
  • No significant differences in metrics were found between young and elderly age groups.

Conclusions:

  • T1-based metrics (T1 and MTV) demonstrated better reliability than MT-based measurements (MTR and MTsat).
  • Measurement error is a significant challenge in spinal cord myelin imaging, potentially obscuring true biological variations.
  • The study provides statistical guidelines to standardize spinal cord myelin imaging and facilitate large-scale, multi-center research.

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