Multicenter reliability of diffusion tensor imaging.

A number of studies are now collecting diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data across sites. While the reliability of anatomical images has been established by a number of groups, the reliability of DTI data has not been studied as extensively. In this study, five healthy controls were recruited and imaged at eight imaging centers. Repeated measures were obtained across two imaging protocols allowing intra-subject and inter-site variability to be assessed. Regional measures within white matter were obtained for standard rotationally invariant measures: fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity. Intra-subject coefficient of variation (CV) was typically <1% for all scalars and regions. Inter-site CV increased to ~1%-3%. Inter-vendor variation was similar to inter-site variability. This variability includes differences in the actual implementation of the sequence.