Measurement precision and biological variation of cranial arteries using automated analysis of 3 T magnetic resonance angiography

The Journal of Headache and Pain

Research Article

Linda Wiinberg¹  Nanna Arngrim¹  Faisal Mohammad Amin¹  Anders Hougaard¹  Elisabet Lundholm¹  Messoud Ashina¹  Patrick JH de Koning²  Henrik BW Larsson³ 

[1] Danish Headache Center and Department of Neurology, Glostrup Hospital, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Nordre Ringvej 57, DK-2600, Glostrup, Denmark;Division of Image Processing, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands;Functional Imaging Unit, Diagnostic Department, Glostrup Hospital, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;

关键词: Magnetic resonance angiography;    Middle meningeal artery;    Middle cerebral artery;    Migraine;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1129-2377-15-25

 received in 2014-03-23, accepted in 2014-04-25,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNon-invasive magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) has facilitated repeated measurements of human cranial arteries in several headache and migraine studies. To ensure comparability across studies the same automated analysis software has been used, but the intra- and interobserver, day-to-day and side-to-side variations have not yet been published. We hypothesised that the observer related, side-to-side, and day-to-day variations would be less than 10%.MethodsTen female participants were studied using high-resolution MRA on two study days separated by at least one week. Using the automated LKEB-MRA vessel wall analysis software arterial circumferences were measured by blinded observers. Each artery was analysed twice by each of the two different observers. The primary endpoints were to determine the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and intra- an inter-observer, the day-to-day, and side-to-side variations of the circumference of the middle meningeal (MMA) and middle cerebral (MCA) arteries.ResultsWe found an excellent intra- and interobserver agreement for the MMA (ICC: 0.909-0.987) and for the MCA (ICC: 0.876-0.949). The coefficient of variance within observers was ≤1.8% for MMA and ≤3.1% for MCA; between observers ≤3.4% (MMA) and ≤4.1% (MCA); between days ≤6.0% (MMA) and ≤8.0% (MCA); between sides ≤9.4% (MMA) and ≤6.5% (MCA).ConclusionThe present study demonstrates a low (<5%) inter- and intraobserver variation using the automated LKEB-MRA vessel wall analysis software. Furthermore, the study also suggests that the day-to-day and side-to-side variations of the MMA and MCA circumferences are less than 10%.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Amin et al.; licensee Springer. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.