Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 1 pp 894—901
Predicting Fazekas scores from automatic segmentations of white matter signal abnormalities
- 1 Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Centre for Alzheimer Research, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden
- 2 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, KI, Stockholm, Sweden
- 3 Department of Radiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- 4 Centre for Ageing and Health at The University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 5 Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy at The University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 6 Department of Neuroimaging, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
- 7 Region Västra Götaland, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 8 Region Västra Götaland, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Psychosis Department, Gothenburg, Sweden
Received: September 16, 2019 Accepted: December 24, 2019 Published: January 12, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102662How to Cite
Abstract
Different measurements of white matter signal abnormalities (WMSA) are often used across studies, which hinders combination of WMSA data from different cohorts. We investigated associations between three commonly used measurements of WMSA, aiming to further understand the association between them and their potential interchangeability: the Fazekas scale, the lesion segmentation tool (LST), and FreeSurfer. We also aimed at proposing cut-off values for estimating low and high Fazekas scale WMSA burden from LST and FreeSurfer WMSA, to facilitate clinical use and interpretation of LST and FreeSurfer WMSA data. A population-based cohort of 709 individuals (all of them 70 years old, 52% female) was investigated. We found a strong association between LST and FreeSurfer WMSA, and an association of Fazekas scores with both LST and FreeSurfer WMSA. The proposed cut-off values were 0.00496 for LST and 0.00321 for FreeSurfer (Total Intracranial volumes (TIV)-corrected values). This study provides data on the association between Fazekas scores, hyperintense WMSA, and hypointense WMSA in a large population-based cohort. The proposed cut-off values for translating LST and FreeSurfer WMSA estimations to low and high Fazekas scale WMSA burden may facilitate the combination of WMSA measurements from different cohorts that used either a FLAIR or a T1-weigthed sequence.