A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants
Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is becoming an increasingly important tool for studying brain development. DWI analyses relying on manually-drawn regions of interest and tractography using manually-placed waypoints are considered to provide the most accurate characterisation of the underlying brain...
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doaj-51a6b528a3f64b9ca160188b4d0484d12020-11-25T03:45:52ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722017-08-01157675694A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infantsDiliana Pecheva0Paul Yushkevich1Dafnis Batalle2Emer Hughes3Paul Aljabar4Julia Wurie5Joseph V. Hajnal6A. David Edwards7Daniel C. Alexander8Serena J. Counsell9Hui Zhang10Centre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UK; Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, UKPenn Image Computing and Science Laboratory (PISCL), Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USACentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UKDepartment of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, UKCentre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, UK; Correspondence to: Department of Perinatal Imaging, Division of Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, Kings College London, 1st Floor South Wing, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK.Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, UKDiffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is becoming an increasingly important tool for studying brain development. DWI analyses relying on manually-drawn regions of interest and tractography using manually-placed waypoints are considered to provide the most accurate characterisation of the underlying brain structure. However, these methods are labour-intensive and become impractical for studies with large cohorts and numerous white matter (WM) tracts. Tract-specific analysis (TSA) is an alternative WM analysis method applicable to large-scale studies that offers potential benefits. TSA produces a skeleton representation of WM tracts and projects the group's diffusion data onto the skeleton for statistical analysis. In this work we evaluate the performance of TSA in analysing preterm infant data against results obtained from native space tractography and tract-based spatial statistics. We evaluate TSA's registration accuracy of WM tracts and assess the agreement between native space data and template space data projected onto WM skeletons, in 12 tracts across 48 preterm neonates. We show that TSA registration provides better WM tract alignment than a previous protocol optimised for neonatal spatial normalisation, and that TSA projects FA values that match well with values derived from native space tractography. We apply TSA for the first time to a preterm neonatal population to study the effects of age at scan on WM tracts around term equivalent age. We demonstrate the effects of age at scan on DTI metrics in commissural, projection and association fibres. We demonstrate the potential of TSA for WM analysis and its suitability for infant studies involving multiple tracts.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811917303762Diffusion weighted MRIPretermInfantWhite matterTract-specific analysis |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Diliana Pecheva Paul Yushkevich Dafnis Batalle Emer Hughes Paul Aljabar Julia Wurie Joseph V. Hajnal A. David Edwards Daniel C. Alexander Serena J. Counsell Hui Zhang |
spellingShingle |
Diliana Pecheva Paul Yushkevich Dafnis Batalle Emer Hughes Paul Aljabar Julia Wurie Joseph V. Hajnal A. David Edwards Daniel C. Alexander Serena J. Counsell Hui Zhang A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants NeuroImage Diffusion weighted MRI Preterm Infant White matter Tract-specific analysis |
author_facet |
Diliana Pecheva Paul Yushkevich Dafnis Batalle Emer Hughes Paul Aljabar Julia Wurie Joseph V. Hajnal A. David Edwards Daniel C. Alexander Serena J. Counsell Hui Zhang |
author_sort |
Diliana Pecheva |
title |
A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
title_short |
A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
title_full |
A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
title_fullStr |
A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
title_full_unstemmed |
A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
title_sort |
tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
NeuroImage |
issn |
1095-9572 |
publishDate |
2017-08-01 |
description |
Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is becoming an increasingly important tool for studying brain development. DWI analyses relying on manually-drawn regions of interest and tractography using manually-placed waypoints are considered to provide the most accurate characterisation of the underlying brain structure. However, these methods are labour-intensive and become impractical for studies with large cohorts and numerous white matter (WM) tracts. Tract-specific analysis (TSA) is an alternative WM analysis method applicable to large-scale studies that offers potential benefits. TSA produces a skeleton representation of WM tracts and projects the group's diffusion data onto the skeleton for statistical analysis. In this work we evaluate the performance of TSA in analysing preterm infant data against results obtained from native space tractography and tract-based spatial statistics. We evaluate TSA's registration accuracy of WM tracts and assess the agreement between native space data and template space data projected onto WM skeletons, in 12 tracts across 48 preterm neonates. We show that TSA registration provides better WM tract alignment than a previous protocol optimised for neonatal spatial normalisation, and that TSA projects FA values that match well with values derived from native space tractography. We apply TSA for the first time to a preterm neonatal population to study the effects of age at scan on WM tracts around term equivalent age. We demonstrate the effects of age at scan on DTI metrics in commissural, projection and association fibres. We demonstrate the potential of TSA for WM analysis and its suitability for infant studies involving multiple tracts. |
topic |
Diffusion weighted MRI Preterm Infant White matter Tract-specific analysis |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811917303762 |
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