TY - JOUR
T1 - Multi-center evaluation of stability and reproducibility of quantitative MRI measures in healthy calf muscles
AU - Schlaffke, Lara
AU - Rehmann, Robert
AU - Rohm, Marlena
AU - Otto, Louise A.M.
AU - de Luca, Alberto
AU - Burakiewicz, Jedrzej
AU - Baligand, Celine
AU - Monte, Jithsa
AU - den Harder, Chiel
AU - Hooijmans, Melissa T.
AU - Nederveen, Aart
AU - Schlaeger, Sarah
AU - Weidlich, Dominik
AU - Karampinos, Dimitrios C.
AU - Stouge, Anders
AU - Vaeggemose, Michael
AU - D'Angelo, Maria Grazia
AU - Arrigoni, Filippo
AU - Kan, Hermien E.
AU - Froeling, Martijn
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The purpose of this study was to evaluate temporal stability, multi-center reproducibility and the influence of covariates on a multimodal MR protocol for quantitative muscle imaging and to facilitate its use as a standardized protocol for evaluation of pathology in skeletal muscle. Quantitative T2, quantitative diffusion and four-point Dixon acquisitions of the calf muscles of both legs were repeated within one hour. Sixty-five healthy volunteers (31 females) were included in one of eight 3-T MR systems. Five traveling subjects were examined in six MR scanners. Average values over all slices of water-T2 relaxation time, proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and diffusion metrics were determined for seven muscles. Temporal stability was tested with repeated measured ANOVA and two-way random intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Multi-center reproducibility of traveling volunteers was assessed by a two-way mixed ICC. The factors age, body mass index, gender and muscle were tested for covariance. ICCs of temporal stability were between 0.963 and 0.999 for all parameters. Water-T2 relaxation decreased significantly (P < 10−3) within one hour by ~ 1 ms. Multi-center reproducibility showed ICCs within 0.879–0.917 with the lowest ICC for mean diffusivity. Different muscles showed the highest covariance, explaining 20–40% of variance for observed parameters. Standardized acquisition and processing of quantitative muscle MRI data resulted in high comparability among centers. The imaging protocol exhibited high temporal stability over one hour except for water T2 relaxation times. These results show that data pooling is feasible and enables assembling data from patients with neuromuscular diseases, paving the way towards larger studies of rare muscle disorders.
AB - The purpose of this study was to evaluate temporal stability, multi-center reproducibility and the influence of covariates on a multimodal MR protocol for quantitative muscle imaging and to facilitate its use as a standardized protocol for evaluation of pathology in skeletal muscle. Quantitative T2, quantitative diffusion and four-point Dixon acquisitions of the calf muscles of both legs were repeated within one hour. Sixty-five healthy volunteers (31 females) were included in one of eight 3-T MR systems. Five traveling subjects were examined in six MR scanners. Average values over all slices of water-T2 relaxation time, proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and diffusion metrics were determined for seven muscles. Temporal stability was tested with repeated measured ANOVA and two-way random intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Multi-center reproducibility of traveling volunteers was assessed by a two-way mixed ICC. The factors age, body mass index, gender and muscle were tested for covariance. ICCs of temporal stability were between 0.963 and 0.999 for all parameters. Water-T2 relaxation decreased significantly (P < 10−3) within one hour by ~ 1 ms. Multi-center reproducibility showed ICCs within 0.879–0.917 with the lowest ICC for mean diffusivity. Different muscles showed the highest covariance, explaining 20–40% of variance for observed parameters. Standardized acquisition and processing of quantitative muscle MRI data resulted in high comparability among centers. The imaging protocol exhibited high temporal stability over one hour except for water T2 relaxation times. These results show that data pooling is feasible and enables assembling data from patients with neuromuscular diseases, paving the way towards larger studies of rare muscle disorders.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069942697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85069942697&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31313867
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4119
DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4119
M3 - Article
C2 - 31313867
SN - 0952-3480
VL - 32
JO - NMR in biomedicine
JF - NMR in biomedicine
IS - 9
M1 - e4119
ER -