Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is an analytical technique that enables the identification and the quantification of metabolites. Several reproducibility studies on different brain areas have been performed in healthy subjects but few of them have focused on the cerebellum, particularly on the vermis. It is known that the cerebellum plays a key role in motor control and learning but recent evidence suggests its involvement also in cognition and emotion1. Thus, the aim of this work was: (i) to characterize cerebellar metabolites in cognitive areas, such as CrusI-II and (ii) to examine the effect of tissue composition on metabolites quantification. The reproducibility of the final acquisition protocol was also investigated. The study was carried out on 11 healthy subjects (mean age 27 ± 5 years). On 5 of these 11 the acquisition was repeated twice to assess protocol reproducibility. The study was performed on a 3T scanner and MRS data were acquired using a single-voxel PRESS sequence on three different voxels of interest: one in the CrusI-II, one in the cerebellar white matter and one in the cerebral white matter, as standard reference. Raw spectroscopy data were analyzed using JMRUI5.2 and TARQUIN while statistical analysis was performed with SPSS21.0. Boxplots of metabolites concentration were created providing a standard range of concentrations in the cerebellar areas studied in this cohort of subjects. The volumetric T1-weighted images were segmented with SPM12 to correct the metabolites concentration for cerebrospinal fluid contamination and relaxation2. The mean values of raw and corrected metabolites concentration were significantly different (p<0.001, one-sample and paired t-tests), while their coefficient of variance resulted comparable. About the reproducibility, the interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for each metabolite was calculated to estimate if the fraction of the total variability was due to biological variation (>0.5) or to measurement errors (<0.5). The ICC values ranged from 0.60 to 0.93 suggesting that the variability is due to biological differences3. Furthermore, the corrected ICC values were similar or lower than the raw ones, showing that the correction for the tissues contamination did not significantly improve the reproducibility results. Overall, the characterization of cerebellar metabolites in CrusI-II could be a useful clinical and research tool to study cerebellar pathophysiology involved in the cognitive functions.

Characterization and reproducibility of cerebellar metabolites in Crus I-II using MRS / S. Marchese, F. Palesi, G. Savini, P. Vitali, G. Germani, C. Gandini Wheeler-Kingshott, P. Cavallari, E. De Vita, E. D’Angelo. ((Intervento presentato al 9. convegno Congresso AIRMM (Associazione Italiana di Risonanza Magnetica in Medicina). ISMRM (International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine) Italian Chapter tenutosi a Padova nel 2018.

Characterization and reproducibility of cerebellar metabolites in Crus I-II using MRS

P. Vitali;P. Cavallari;
2018

Abstract

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is an analytical technique that enables the identification and the quantification of metabolites. Several reproducibility studies on different brain areas have been performed in healthy subjects but few of them have focused on the cerebellum, particularly on the vermis. It is known that the cerebellum plays a key role in motor control and learning but recent evidence suggests its involvement also in cognition and emotion1. Thus, the aim of this work was: (i) to characterize cerebellar metabolites in cognitive areas, such as CrusI-II and (ii) to examine the effect of tissue composition on metabolites quantification. The reproducibility of the final acquisition protocol was also investigated. The study was carried out on 11 healthy subjects (mean age 27 ± 5 years). On 5 of these 11 the acquisition was repeated twice to assess protocol reproducibility. The study was performed on a 3T scanner and MRS data were acquired using a single-voxel PRESS sequence on three different voxels of interest: one in the CrusI-II, one in the cerebellar white matter and one in the cerebral white matter, as standard reference. Raw spectroscopy data were analyzed using JMRUI5.2 and TARQUIN while statistical analysis was performed with SPSS21.0. Boxplots of metabolites concentration were created providing a standard range of concentrations in the cerebellar areas studied in this cohort of subjects. The volumetric T1-weighted images were segmented with SPM12 to correct the metabolites concentration for cerebrospinal fluid contamination and relaxation2. The mean values of raw and corrected metabolites concentration were significantly different (p<0.001, one-sample and paired t-tests), while their coefficient of variance resulted comparable. About the reproducibility, the interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for each metabolite was calculated to estimate if the fraction of the total variability was due to biological variation (>0.5) or to measurement errors (<0.5). The ICC values ranged from 0.60 to 0.93 suggesting that the variability is due to biological differences3. Furthermore, the corrected ICC values were similar or lower than the raw ones, showing that the correction for the tissues contamination did not significantly improve the reproducibility results. Overall, the characterization of cerebellar metabolites in CrusI-II could be a useful clinical and research tool to study cerebellar pathophysiology involved in the cognitive functions.
mag-2018
Settore BIO/09 - Fisiologia
Characterization and reproducibility of cerebellar metabolites in Crus I-II using MRS / S. Marchese, F. Palesi, G. Savini, P. Vitali, G. Germani, C. Gandini Wheeler-Kingshott, P. Cavallari, E. De Vita, E. D’Angelo. ((Intervento presentato al 9. convegno Congresso AIRMM (Associazione Italiana di Risonanza Magnetica in Medicina). ISMRM (International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine) Italian Chapter tenutosi a Padova nel 2018.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/675824
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