Abstract
Aims: This study aimed to analyze the performance of multi-atlas MRI-based parcellation for 123I-FP-CIT SPECT (DAT-SPECT) in healthy volunteers. The proposed method was compared with the SPECT-atlas-based and Bolt methods. 18F-FE-PE2I-PET (DAT-PET) was used as a reference.Methods: Thirty healthy subjects underwent DAT-SPECT, DAT-PET, and 3D-T1WI-MRI. We calculated the striatum uptake ratio (SUR/SBR), caudate uptake ratio (CUR), and putamen uptake ratio (PUR) for DAT-SPECT using the multi-atlas MRI-based method, SPECT-atlas-based method, and Bolt method. In the multi-atlas MRI-based method, the cerebellum, occipital cortex, and whole-brain were used as reference regions. The correlation of age with DAT-SPECT activity and the correlations of SUR/SBR, CUR, and PUR between DAT-SPECT and DAT-PET were calculated by each of the three methods.Results: The correlation between age and SUR/SBR for DAT-SPECT based on the multi-atlas MRI-based method was comparable to that based on the SPECT-atlas-based method (r = −0.441 to −0.496 vs. −0.488). The highest correlation between DAT-SPECT and DAT-PET was observed using the multi-atlas MRI-based method with the occipital lobe defined as the reference region compared with the SPECT-atlas-based and Bolt methods (SUR, CUR, and PUR: 0.687, 0.723, and 0.676 vs. 0.698, 0.660, and 0.616 vs. 0.655).Conclusion: Multi-atlas MRI-based parcellation with the occipital lobe defined as the reference region was at least comparable to the clinical methods.
Highlights
123I-FP-CIT-SPECT (DAT-SPECT) is widely used for the assessment of degenerative Parkinson’s syndromes, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple system atrophy, and progressive supranuclear palsy
The correlation between age and SUR/specific-to-non-displaceable binding ratio (SBR) for dopamine transporter (DAT)-SPECT based on the multi-atlas MRI-based method was comparable to that based on the SPECT-atlas-based method (r = −0.441 to −0.496 vs. −0.488)
The highest correlation between DAT-SPECT and DAT-PET was observed using the multi-atlas MRI-based method with the occipital lobe defined as the reference region compared with the SPECT-atlas-based and Bolt methods (SUR, caudate uptake ratio (CUR), and putamen uptake ratio (PUR): 0.687, 0.723, and 0.676 vs. 0.698, 0.660, and 0.616 vs. 0.655)
Summary
123I-FP-CIT-SPECT (DAT-SPECT) is widely used for the assessment of degenerative Parkinson’s syndromes, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple system atrophy, and progressive supranuclear palsy. To overcome the disadvantages of the current methods described above, Perlaki et al evaluated the utility of segmentation by using patient-specific T1WI [11] Their method is expected to be implemented into clinical workflows because 3D-T1WI-MRI is generally performed as a routine assessment for Parkinson’s diseases and the scan time for it has decreased due to recently developed acceleration techniques (e.g., parallel imaging and compressed sensing). They did not compare MRI segmentation to current clinical methods (the Bolt method or SPECT-atlas-based method). One can expect that the MRI segmentation using multi-atlas MRI can improve the accuracy of segmentation [12]
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