Deformation based morphometry study of longitudinal MRI changes in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

• Published in: NeuroImage clinical Vol. 24; p. 102079
• Main Authors: Manera, Ana L., Dadar, Mahsa, Collins, D. Louis, Ducharme, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.01.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aged; Atrophy; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - pathology; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral Ventricles - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Ventricles - pathology; Corpus Callosum - diagnostic imaging; Corpus Callosum - pathology; Deformation based morphometry; Diagnostic biomarker; Disease Progression; Female; Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Frontal Lobe - pathology; Frontotemporal dementia; Frontotemporal Dementia - diagnostic imaging; Frontotemporal Dementia - pathology; Gyrus Cinguli - diagnostic imaging; Gyrus Cinguli - pathology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Longitudinal Studies; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Morphometric analysis; Organ Size; Radiology; Regular; White Matter - diagnostic imaging; White Matter - pathology; VV; Deformation based morphometry; NPI; SEADL; BNT; MTT; DBM; CDR-SOB; Diagnostic biomarker; CDR; DX; FDR; MMSE; Morphometric analysis; VBM; T1-w; ROIs; CNCs; MOCA; CGI; CVLT; MNI-MINC; FTLD; BIS; Magnetic resonance imaging; BAS; FTLDNI; FTD; FAQ; bvFTD; Frontotemporal dementia; Montreal Cognitive Assessment; Frontotemporal lobar degeneration clinical dementia rating scale sum of boxes; cognitively normal controls; Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale; Behavioural Activation Scale; Diagnosis; Montreal Neurological Institute Medical Imaging NetCDF; Clinical Dementia Rating Scale; Modified Trials; behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia; Mini Mental State Examination; frontotemporal lobar degeneration; Ventricular volume; T1 weighted; Behavioural Inhibition Scale; Boston Naming test; Functional Activities Questionnaire; Regions of interest; California Verbal Learning Test; frontotemporal lobar degeneration neuroimaging initiative; False Discovery Rate; voxel-based morphometry; deformation-based morphometry; Neuropsychiatry Inventory; Clinical Global Impression
• ISSN: 2213-1582; 2213-1582
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102079

•The expected atrophy was shown in the frontal lobes and anterior temporal regions.•Subcortical structures were notably affected in our bvFTD cohort.•Ventricles and sulci within frontotemporal regions were larger in the bvFTD cohort.•Ventricles and sulci showed significant enlargement and over a one-year period.•Ventricular expansion was the most prominent differentiator of bvFTD from controls. To objectively quantify how cerebral volume loss could assist with clinical diagnosis and clinical trial design in the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We applied deformation-based morphometric analyses with robust registration to precisely quantify the magnitude and pattern of atrophy in patients with bvFTD as compared to cognitively normal controls (CNCs), to assess the progression of atrophy over one year follow up and to generate clinical trial sample size estimates to detect differences for the structures most sensitive to change. This study included 203 subjects - 70 bvFTD and 133 CNCs - with a total of 482 timepoints from the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative. Deformation based morphometry (DBM) revealed significant atrophy in the frontal lobes, insula, medial and anterior temporal regions bilaterally in bvFTD subjects compared to controls with outstanding subcortical involvement. We provide detailed information on regional changes per year. In both cross-sectional analysis and over a one-year follow-up period, ventricle expansion was the most prominent differentiator of bvFTD from controls and a sensitive marker of disease progression. Automated measurement of ventricular expansion is a sensitive and reliable marker of disease progression in bvFTD to be used in clinical trials for potential disease modifying drugs, as well as possibly to implement in clinical practice. Ventricular expansion measured with DBM provides the lowest published estimated sample size for clinical trial design to detect significant differences over one and two years.