| Literature DB >> 31705723 |
Faezeh Sanaei Nezhad1, Caroline A Lea-Carnall2, Adriana Anton2, JeYoung Jung3, Emilia Michou4, Stephen R Williams1, Laura M Parkes2.
Abstract
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a research tool for measuring the concentration of metabolites such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate in the brain. MEGA-PRESS has been the preferred pulse sequence for GABA measurements due to low physiological GABA concentrations, hence low signal. To compensate, researchers incorporate long acquisition durations (7-10 min) making functional measurements of this metabolite challenging. Here, the acquisition duration and sample sizes required to detect specific concentration changes in GABA using MEGA-PRESS at 3 T are presented for both between-groups and within-session study designs. 75 spectra were acquired during rest using MEGA-PRESS from 41 healthy volunteers in 6 different brain regions at 3 T with voxel sizes between 13 and 22 cm3 . Between-group and within-session variance was calculated for different acquisition durations and power calculations were performed to determine the number of subjects required to detect a given percentage change in GABA/NAA signal ratio. Within-subject variability was assessed by sampling different segments of a single acquisition. Power calculations suggest that detecting a 15% change in GABA using a 2 min acquisition and a 27 cm3 voxel size, depending on the region, requires between 8 and 93 subjects using a within-session design. A between-group design typically requires more participants to detect the same difference. In brain regions with suboptimal shimming, the subject numbers can be up to 4-fold more. Collecting data for longer than 4 min in brain regions examined in this study is deemed unnecessary, as variance in the signal did not reduce further for longer durations.Entities:
Keywords: GABA; MEGA-PRESS; fMRS; power calculation; precision; quantification
Mesh:
Substances:
Year: 2019 PMID: 31705723 PMCID: PMC7216844 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14618
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Eur J Neurosci ISSN: 0953-816X Impact factor: 3.386
Figure 1Voxel locations are given for each of the regions analysed in the main study [Colour figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
GABA data across subjects are reported in different regions of interest. Mean across subjects of GABA concentration, the grey and white matter percentage within the voxel, and the spectral quality factors are given as mean ± SD at 4 min 16 s acquisition time
| Region (rejected spectra) | Voxel Size cm3 | [GABA/NAA] | GM% | WM% | GABA SNR | NAA LW (Hz) | Glx CRLB(%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ACC
| 28 | 4.2 ± 0.8 | 43.4 ± 2.6 | 46.1 ± 2.5 | 3.1 ± 0.8 | 5.6 ± 0.5 | 8.5 ± 1.3 |
|
ATL
| 13.1 | 2.1 ± 1.0 | 50.9 ± 4.2 | 46.8 ± 4.7 | 1.2 ± 0.4 | 12.1 ± 4.0 | 36.6 ± 24.7 |
|
LMC
| 32.8 | 3.0 ± 0.9 | 31.0 ± 2.7 | 62.2 ± 4.3 | 2.6 ± 0.6 | 6.3 ± 1.0 | 18.0 ± 22.0 |
|
LOCC
| 32.8 | 3.3 ± 0.6 | 42.7 ± 3.0 | 52.8 ± 6.0 | 2.5 ± 0.4 | 6.8 ± 1.5 | 24.0 ± 46.0 |
|
OCC
| 27 | 3.8 ± 0.5 | 54.2 ± 6.0 | 32.2 ± 10.1 | 3.7 ± 0.9 | 5.9 ± 0.6 | 7.3 ± 2.0 |
|
RMC
| 32.8 | 3.4 ± 0.7 | 31.7 ± 4.2 | 61.0 ± 6.0 | 1.9 ± 0.9 | 5.9 ± 0.3 | 12.0 ± 5.0 |
Figure 2GABA/NAA concentration measurement is shown for each participant as the acquisition duration increases for each ROI with mean in bold
Figure 3The relative SD is given for a standard voxel size of 27 cm3 per ROI as a function of acquisition duration. It can be seen that the variance does not reduce any further for acquisition times greater than 4 min [Colour figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 4A sample spectrum with 4 min 16 s acquisition time in each of the regions analysed. GABA, Glx and NAA are labelled on the first spectrum [Colour figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 5The sample size required to detect a given effect size in each region of interest is plotted for (a) between‐group design for duration of 4 min 16 s, (b) within‐session design for duration of 4 min 16, (c) between‐group design for duration of 2 min 8 s (d) within‐session design for duration of 2 min 8 s. Equation 3 was used to calculate the required number of subjects [Colour figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
The number of subjects required to detect a 15% change of GABA in each region of interest using a standard 27 cm3 voxel is reported for each region, study design and duration investigated
| Region |
Between‐group 4 min 16 s |
Within‐session 4 min 16 s |
Between‐group 2 min 8 s |
Within‐session 2 min 8 s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | 27 | 36 | 100 | 88 |
| ATL | 40 | 43 | 57 | 93 |
| LMC | 86 | NA | 195 | 42 |
| LOCC | 29 | NA | 79 | 20 |
| OCC | 14 | 8 | 27 | 13 |
| RMC | 39 | NA | 27 | 8 |