Sensitivity of Diffusion MRI to White Matter Pathology: Influence of Diffusion Protocol, Magnetic Field Strength, and Processing Pipeline in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

• DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.837385
• Publication Date: 2022-04-26T11:35:08Z
• Authors: Evgenios N. Korna...; Stefan Winzeck; Theodor Rumetshofer; Anna Wikstrom; Linda Knutsson; Marta M. Correia; Pia C. Sundgren; Markus Nilsson
• Keywords: diffusion processing; diffusion MRI; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Neurology; DTI; white matter fiber-tracts; ultra-high magnetic field strength (7T); Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system; RC346-429; DKI; ROI-based analysis; effect sizes

There are many ways to acquire and process diffusion MRI (dMRI) data for group studies, but it is unknown which maximizes the sensitivity white matter (WM) pathology. Inspired by this question, we analyzed acquired tensor imaging (DTI) kurtosis (DKI) at 3T (3T-DTI 3T-DKI) DTI 7T in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) healthy controls (HC). Parameter estimates 72 WM tracts were obtained using TractSeg. The impact on pathology was evaluated protocol, magnetic field strength, processing pipeline. Sensitivity quantified terms of Cohen's d comparison. Results showed that choice protocol had largest effect size. size fractional anisotropy (FA) across all 0.26 higher when derived than DKI 0.20 compared 7T. difference due larger strength majority parameters. In contrast, between including or excluding different steps near negligible, except correction distortions from eddy currents motion a clearly positive impact. For example, sizes increased average 0.07 FA 3T-DTI. Effect slightly reduced incorporation denoising Gibbs-ringing removal (on 0.011 0.005, respectively). Smoothing prior model fitting generally sizes. summary, 3T-DTI combination current yielded highest SLE. However, our results also indicated 3T-DKI 7T-DTI protocols used here may be adjusted increase