Jorge Jovicich1,
Moira Marizzoni2, Roser Sala-Llonch3, Nuria Bargall3,
David Bartrs-Faz3, Jennifer Arnold4, Jens Benninghoff4,
Jens Wiltfang4, Luca Roccatagliata5, Flavio Nobili5,
Christian Zeeh6, Peter Schonknecht6, Giada Zoccatelli7,
Franco Alessandrini7, Alberto Beltramello7, Hlne
Gros-Dagnac8, Pierre Payoux8, Valrie Chanoine9,
Jean-Philippe Ranjeva9, Mira Didic9, Melanie Leroy10,
Regis Bordet10, Giovanni Frisoni2
1University
of Trento, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, Mattarello, Trento, Italy; 2IRCCS
San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, LENITEM Lab of Epidem., Neuroim. &
Telem, Brescia, Lombardia, Italy; 3Dept. Psychiatry and Clinical
Psychobiology, Faculty of Medicine University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;
4Department of Psychiatry
and nuclear medicine, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; 5Dept
of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genoa, Genoa,
Lombardia, Italy; 6Dept of Psychiatry and Dept of Neuroradiology,
University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; 7Dept of Neuroradiology,
Verona General Hospital, Verona, Italy; 8U825 - Plateau Technique
IRM, INSERM / Universit Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France; 9Hpital
La Timone CIC UPCET, Marseille, France; 10Universit Lille UL2,
Lille, France
Multi-site longitudinal diffusion MRI studies are of interest in the search for biomarkers that can reliably predict disease progression and/or therapeutic treatment effects. Previous multi-site 3T MRI studies evaluating across-session reproducibility are limited to few sites or to long dedicated acquisitions with multiple DTI averages. In this study we evaluate and compare across-session test-retest reproducibility of fractional anisotropy, mean, axial and radial diffusivities across eight different 3T MRI sites (Siemens, Philips, GE), on a group of healthy elderly subjects, using a single DTI acquisition that is part of a protocol aimed at studying other anatomical and functional parameters.