Scan-rescan and inter-vendor reproducibility of neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging metrics

The reproducibility of neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) metrics in the human brain has not been explored across different magnetic resonance (MR) scanners from different vendors. This study aimed to evaluate the scan-rescan and inter-vendor reproducibility of NODDI metrics in white and gray matter of healthy subjects using two 3-T MR scanners from two vendors.

Ten healthy subjects (7 males; mean age 30 ± 7 years, range 23-37 years) were included in the study. Whole-brain diffusion-weighted imaging was performed with b-values of 1000 and 2000 s/mm² using two 3-T MR scanners from two different vendors. Automatic extraction of the region of interest was performed to obtain NODDI metrics for whole and localized areas of white and gray matter. The coefficient of variation (CoV) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated to assess the scan-rescan and inter-vendor reproducibilities of NODDI metrics.

The scan-rescan and inter-vendor reproducibility of NODDI metrics (intracellular volume fraction and orientation dispersion index) were comparable with those of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics. However, the inter-vendor reproducibilities of NODDI (CoV = 2.3-14%) were lower than the scan-rescan reproducibility (CoV: scanner A = 0.8-3.8%; scanner B = 0.8-2.6%). Compared with the finding of DTI metrics, the reproducibility of NODDI metrics was lower in white matter and higher in gray matter.

The lower inter-vendor reproducibility of NODDI in some brain regions indicates that data acquired from different MRI scanners should be carefully interpreted.