Reproducibility and reliability of MR measurements in white matter: Clinical implications

The purpose of this study was to determine the reproducibility and reliability of five MRI-derived measurements, namely, total water content (WC), myelin water content (MWC), mean T2 relaxation time (GMT2), T1 relaxation time (T1) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR). Five controls were scanned 5 times over 1 year. The five MR measurements were made for 5 white matter regions. All measurements were found to be highly reproducible. MTR had a low reliability coefficient because all individual values were similar. Therefore, MTR would be most sensitive in detecting changes from normal. WC had a high reliability coefficient in all regions. For MWC, GMT2 and T1, the overall reliability coefficients were high but for some individual regions were low. The high coefficients suggest that these measurements, although different between normal subjects, are consistent over time. They could be used to explore natural differences in the normal population, but due to the large spread in normal values, larger sample sizes are needed to detect pathological changes.

[1]  Alex L. MacKay,et al.  Quantitative interpretation of NMR relaxation data , 1989 .

[2]  M. Bloom,et al.  Time- and frequency-domain “dePakeing” using inverse theory , 1989 .

[3]  M. Filippi,et al.  A magnetization transfer study of white matter in siblings of multiple sclerosis patients , 1997, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[4]  Frederik Barkhof,et al.  Multislice T1 relaxation time measurements in the brain using IR‐EPI: Reproducibility, normal values, and histogram analysis in patients with multiple sclerosis , 2003, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[5]  D. Arnold,et al.  Evolution of focal and diffuse magnetisation transfer abnormalities in multiple sclerosis , 2003, Journal of Neurology.

[6]  J. Mazziotta,et al.  Rapid Automated Algorithm for Aligning and Reslicing PET Images , 1992, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[7]  R I Grossman,et al.  Quantitative volumetric magnetization transfer analysis in multiple sclerosis: Estimation of macroscopic and microscopic disease burden , 1996, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[8]  G. B. Pike,et al.  Multiple sclerosis: magnetization transfer MR imaging of white matter before lesion appearance on T2-weighted images. , 2000, Radiology.

[9]  W. Reddick,et al.  Establishing norms for age-related changes in proton T1 of human brain tissue in vivo. , 1997, Magnetic resonance imaging.

[10]  G J Barker,et al.  Standardization of magnetization transfer imaging for multicenter studies. , 1999, Neurology.

[11]  R. Steen,et al.  Precise and accurate measurement of proton T1 in human brain in vivo: Validation and preliminary clinical application , 1994, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[12]  A. MacKay,et al.  In vivo visualization of myelin water in brain by magnetic resonance , 1994, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[13]  G J Barker,et al.  Magnetisation transfer ratio of normal brain white matter: a normative database spanning four decades of life. , 1997, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[14]  S. Holland,et al.  NMR relaxation times in the human brain at 3.0 tesla , 1999, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[15]  S. Forsén,et al.  Study of Moderately Rapid Chemical Exchange Reactions by Means of Nuclear Magnetic Double Resonance , 1963 .

[16]  M Filippi,et al.  A Magnetization Transfer Imaging Study of Normal-Appearing White Matter in Multiple Sclerosis , 1995, Neurology.

[17]  J K Udupa,et al.  Global volumetric estimation of disease burden in multiple sclerosis based on magnetization transfer imaging. , 1997, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[18]  M W Weiner,et al.  A serial study of new MS lesions and the white matter from which they arise , 1998, Neurology.

[19]  G. B. Pike,et al.  Magnetization transfer MR of the normal adult brain. , 1995, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[20]  David H. Miller,et al.  A multicenter measurement of magnetization transfer ratio in normal white matter , 1999, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[21]  R I Grossman,et al.  Microscopic disease in normal-appearing white matter on conventional MR images in patients with multiple sclerosis: assessment with magnetization-transfer measurements. , 1995, Radiology.

[22]  R. Balaban,et al.  Magnetization transfer contrast (MTC) and tissue water proton relaxation in vivo , 1989, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[23]  W. Honer,et al.  Abnormalities of myelination in schizophrenia detected in vivo with MRI, and post-mortem with analysis of oligodendrocyte proteins , 2003, Molecular Psychiatry.

[24]  David Shera,et al.  Age-related, regional, hemispheric, and medial-lateral differences in myelin integrity in vivo in the normal adult brain. , 2004, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[25]  M Filippi,et al.  Magnetization transfer changes in the normal appering white matter precede the appearance of enhancing lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis , 1998, Annals of neurology.

[26]  M Filippi,et al.  Magnetisation transfer imaging: theory and application to multiple sclerosis. , 1998, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[27]  A. Mackay,et al.  In vivo measurement of T2 distributions and water contents in normal human brain , 1997, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[28]  M. Richardson,et al.  Measurement of amygdala T2 relaxation time in temporal lobe epilepsy , 2002, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[29]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .