eprintid: 1555427 rev_number: 28 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/01/55/54/27 datestamp: 2017-05-07 03:07:51 lastmod: 2021-09-20 00:11:06 status_changed: 2017-07-14 10:56:15 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Pecheva, D creators_name: Yushkevich, P creators_name: Batalle, D creators_name: Hughes, E creators_name: Aljabar, P creators_name: Wurie, J creators_name: Hajnal, JV creators_name: Edwards, AD creators_name: Alexander, DC creators_name: Counsell, SJ creators_name: Zhang, H title: A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants. ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: F48 keywords: Diffusion weighted MRI, infant, preterm, tract-specific analysis, white matter note: © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) abstract: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is becoming an increasingly important tool for studying brain development. DWI analyses relying on manually-drawn regions of interest and tractography using manually-placed waypoints are considered to provide the most accurate characterisation of the underlying brain structure. However, these methods are labour-intensive and become impractical for studies with large cohorts and numerous white matter (WM) tracts. Tract-specific analysis (TSA) is an alternative WM analysis method applicable to large-scale studies that offers potential benefits. TSA produces a skeleton representation of WM tracts and projects the group's diffusion data onto the skeleton for statistical analysis. In this work we evaluate the performance of TSA in analysing preterm infant data against results obtained from native space tractography and tract-based spatial statistics. We evaluate TSA's registration accuracy of WM tracts and assess the agreement between native space data and template space data projected onto WM skeletons, in 12 tracts across 48 preterm neonates. We show that TSA registration provides better WM tract alignment than a previous protocol optimised for neonatal spatial normalisation, and that TSA projects FA values that match well with values derived from native space tractography. We apply TSA for the first time to a preterm neonatal population to study the effects of age at scan on WM tracts around term equivalent age. We demonstrate the effects of age at scan on DTI metrics in commissural, projection and association fibres. We demonstrate the potential of TSA for WM analysis and its suitability for infant studies involving multiple tracts. date: 2017-08-15 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.057 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Journal Article verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1292201 doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.057 pii: S1053-8119(17)30376-2 lyricists_name: Alexander, Daniel lyricists_name: Zhang, Hui lyricists_id: DALEX06 lyricists_id: HZHAN50 full_text_status: public publication: Neuroimage volume: 157 pagerange: 675-694 event_location: United States issn: 1095-9572 citation: Pecheva, D; Yushkevich, P; Batalle, D; Hughes, E; Aljabar, P; Wurie, J; Hajnal, JV; ... Zhang, H; + view all <#> Pecheva, D; Yushkevich, P; Batalle, D; Hughes, E; Aljabar, P; Wurie, J; Hajnal, JV; Edwards, AD; Alexander, DC; Counsell, SJ; Zhang, H; - view fewer <#> (2017) A tract-specific approach to assessing white matter in preterm infants. Neuroimage , 157 pp. 675-694. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.057 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.057>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1555427/1/Zhang_1-s2.0-S1053811917303762-main.pdf