Utility of multi center MRI study in analyzing brain morphometry

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K19868
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Radiation science
• Research Institution: University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Keita 産業医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (70565663)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: MRI / 脳画像統計解析 / 脳形態 / 多施設共同研究

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study revealed that if the acquisition conditions of MRI are not unified, the power of detecting brain information such as brain morphology may be reduced by performing multi center MRI study. On the other hand, we found that when the MRI imaging conditions were unified, the same level of brain information as when imaging the same number of cases at a single center could be obtained. In this study, we are also investigating the optimization of VSRAD imaging conditions for the purpose of evaluating brain atrophy of Alzheimer's dementia, which is widely performed in Japan. Conventionally, the imaging time of about 3-5 minutes was required, but we found that a similar measurement result of cerebral atrophy can be obtained even by the short-time imaging of about 15 seconds.

Free Research Field

放射線科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

近年、MRIを用いた脳画像の研究は多くの施設が集まり、異なるMRIで撮像したデータを混合して解析を行うことが主流となってきている。本研究の結果は今後、多施設共同で研究を行う場合にMRIの撮像条件を調整する際および脳画像統計解析を行う際に重要な注意点となる。また、VSRAD解析において、今回の研究で提案する短時間撮像を用いることは、MRI検査の時間短縮および患者の検査負担の軽減に繋がる。