Multi-center reproducibility of structural, diffusion tensor, and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging...

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Neuro-oncology
• Clinical Trials

Background:

• Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) is used for small-cell lung cancer.
• Hippocampal avoidance (HA-PCI) aims to reduce neurotoxicity compared to conventional PCI.
• Multi-center longitudinal studies require reproducible imaging techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the multi-center reproducibility and longitudinal consistency of MRI measurements.
• To support a phase III clinical trial comparing HA-PCI and conventional PCI.
• To assess the reliability of MRI data for neurotoxicity assessment.

Main Methods:

• Harmonized MRI acquisition protocols were implemented across six sites and two vendors.
• Reproducibility was assessed using physical and human phantoms.
• Evaluated metrics included hippocampal volume, diffusion imaging, and resting-state fMRI in healthy volunteers.

Main Results:

• Average coefficients of variation (CV) were below 5% for structural and diffusion imaging metrics.
• Tractography diffusion metrics showed slightly higher CVs (up to 7.8%).
• Resting-state fMRI demonstrated stable temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and reliable default mode network (DMN) generation.

Conclusions:

• The developed multi-site MRI protocol is suitable for longitudinal studies.
• Pooling data from the phase III HA-PCI project is feasible.
• Regular quality assurance is crucial for monitoring scanner-related changes and ensuring data integrity.