Evaluation of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Repeatability and Reproducibility for Preclinical MRIs Using Standardized Procedures and a Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Phantom

Authors

Dariya Malyarenko
Ghoncheh Amouzandeh
Stephen Pickup
Rong Zhou
Henry Charles Manning
Seth T Gammon
Kooresh I Shoghi
James D Quirk
Renuka Sriram
Peder Larson
Michael T Lewis
Robia G Pautler
Paul E Kinahan
Mark Muzi
Thomas L Chenevert

Publication Date

2-7-2023

Journal

Tomography

DOI

10.3390/tomography9010030

PMID

36828382

PMCID

PMC9964373

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

2-7-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Humans, Phantoms, Imaging, Reproducibility of Results, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Benchmarking, preclinical MRI, diffusion phantom, repeatability, reproducibility, apparent diffusion coefficient, ADC, ADC bias

Abstract

Relevant to co-clinical trials, the goal of this work was to assess repeatability, reproducibility, and bias of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for preclinical MRIs using standardized procedures for comparison to performance of clinical MRIs. A temperature-controlled phantom provided an absolute reference standard to measure spatial uniformity of these performance metrics. Seven institutions participated in the study, wherein diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data were acquired over multiple days on 10 preclinical scanners, from 3 vendors, at 6 field strengths. Centralized versus site-based analysis was compared to illustrate incremental variance due to processing workflow. At magnet isocenter, short-term (intra-exam) and long-term (multiday) repeatability were excellent at within-system coefficient of variance, wCV [±CI] = 0.73% [0.54%, 1.12%] and 1.26% [0.94%, 1.89%], respectively. The cross-system reproducibility coefficient, RDC [±CI] = 0.188 [0.129, 0.343] µm2/ms, corresponded to 17% [12%, 31%] relative to the reference standard. Absolute bias at isocenter was low (within 4%) for 8 of 10 systems, whereas two high-bias (>10%) scanners were primary contributors to the relatively high RDC. Significant additional variance (>2%) due to site-specific analysis was observed for 2 of 10 systems. Base-level technical bias, repeatability, reproducibility, and spatial uniformity patterns were consistent with human MRIs (scaled for bore size). Well-calibrated preclinical MRI systems are capable of highly repeatable and reproducible ADC measurements.

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