Reproducibility of arterial spin labeling cerebral blood flow image processing: A report of the ISMRM open science initiative for perfusion imaging (OSIPI)_and the ASL MRI challenge

PURPOSE

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a widely used contrast-free MRI method for assessing cerebral blood flow (CBF). Despite the generally adopted ASL acquisition guidelines, there is still wide variability in ASL analysis. We explored this variability through the ISMRM-OSIPI ASL-MRI Challenge, aiming to establish best practices for more reproducible ASL analysis.

METHODS

Eight teams analyzed the challenge data, which included a high-resolution T1-weighted anatomical image and 10 pseudo-continuous ASL datasets simulated using a digital reference object to generate ground-truth CBF values in normal and pathological states. We compared the accuracy of CBF quantification from each team's analysis to the ground truth across all voxels and within predefined brain regions. Reproducibility of CBF across analysis pipelines was assessed using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), limits of agreement (LOA), and replicability of generating similar CBF estimates from different processing approaches.

RESULTS

Absolute errors in CBF estimates compared to ground-truth synthetic data ranged from 18.36 to 48.12 mL/100 g/min. Realistic motion incorporated into three datasets produced the largest absolute error and variability between teams, with the least agreement (ICC and LOA) with ground-truth results. Fifty percent of the submissions were replicated, and one produced three times larger CBF errors (46.59 mL/100 g/min) compared to submitted results.

CONCLUSIONS

Variability in CBF measurements, influenced by differences in image processing, especially to compensate for motion, highlights the significance of standardizing ASL analysis workflows. We provide a recommendation for ASL processing based on top-performing approaches as a step toward ASL standardization.

A novel avian virus with trisegmented double-stranded RNA and further observations on previously described similar viruses with bisegmented genome

The occurrence in chickens of small viruses with bisegmented double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome is confirmed and a new virus with similar properties but with three genome segments is described. Both differ from birnaviruses (Intervirology 25, 141-143, 1986) in having indistinct surface structure, smaller diameters (35 nm), and higher buoyant density (1.4 g/ml) in CsCl but are similar in these respects to viruses previously described in several mammals (Lancet 2, 103-104, 1988; J. Gen. Virol. 69, 2749-2754, 1988; Res. Vet. Sci, in press) under the tentative name of picobirnaviruses (PBV). Genome segment length estimations gave values of 2.6 and 1.9 kbp for the avian PBV and 2.9, 2.4 and 0.9 kbp for the trisegmented viruses. The source and pathogenic potential of these viruses remain to be established.

New genome types of adenovirus types 1, 3, and 5 isolated from stools of children in Brazil

During an epidemiological survey made in São Paulo (Brazil), fecal specimens were periodically collected from 100 randomly chosen babies from birth to the age of 18 months. The stools, routinely collected each month and also collected each time a child presented any sign of disease, were screened for the presence of adenoviruses. Sixteen adenovirus strains, isolated from the stools of healthy and ill children, were characterized by restriction enzyme analysis. Five isolates were from subgenus A, five were from subgenus B, four were from subgenus C, and two were from subgenus D. All but two showed some restriction patterns different from those of the 42 human adenovirus prototypes and all the genome types described up to now. No fastidious adenovirus (subgenus F, serotypes 40 and 41) was encountered in the stools examined. We report here the restriction enzyme analysis of isolates of subgenera B and C. The following new designation genome types are proposed: Ad3e1 (subgenus B) and Ad1d, Ad5a1, and Ad5a2 (subgenus C).