College of Physical Science and Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Beijing Engineering Research Center of Radiographic Techniques and Equipment, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Rehabilitation Medicine Technology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian 350122, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technology, Fuzhou, Fujian 350122, China.
J Neurosci Methods. 2019 Dec 1;328:108438. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2019.108438. Epub 2019 Sep 19.
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging techniques of tau retention in the human brain are important for mechanistic studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the method for effectively conducting voxel-wise analysis on tau PET images still needs to be improved. In the present study, we introduced a tau PET template for the human brain in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space for the convenient and reliable voxel-wise analysis of tau PET images in AD studies.
Twenty-four AD patients and 22 controls were used to construct the tau PET template, and an additional 22 subjects (11 AD patients and 11 controls) were enrolled to evaluate the performance of the template. Thirty regions (28 cortical and 2 subcortical regions) throughout the brain were used to evaluate the accuracy of the tau PET template.
A significant relationship (R = 0.848, P < 0.001) was found between the standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) obtained by the tau PET template and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-aided approach, and the paired-sample t-test showed no significant difference (P = 0.62) between the values. These two approaches revealed consistent brain regions with high tau retention.
The tau PET template was comparable with the traditional MRI-aided strategy. Furthermore, compared to the MRI-aided approach, the tau PET template was more convenient and easier to use. More importantly, in most clinical settings, AD patients who underwent PET/computed tomography (CT) typically do not have MR images, in which case the traditional MRI-aided approach would not be applicable. Our tau PET template overcame this deficiency and may serve as a useful tool in AD research.
This tau PET template performed well and may serve as a useful tool in future AD studies.
正电子发射断层扫描（PET）技术可用于检测人脑tau 蛋白的保留情况，这对于阿尔茨海默病（AD）的机制研究非常重要。然而，仍需要改进有效进行 tau PET 图像体素分析的方法。在本研究中，我们引入了蒙特利尔神经学研究所（MNI）空间中的 tau PET 模板，以便在 AD 研究中方便、可靠地进行 tau PET 图像的体素分析。
我们使用 24 名 AD 患者和 22 名对照者构建 tau PET 模板，并招募了另外 22 名受试者（11 名 AD 患者和 11 名对照者）来评估模板的性能。我们评估了大脑 30 个区域（28 个皮质区域和 2 个皮质下区域）的准确性。
tau PET 模板与磁共振成像（MRI）辅助方法获得的标准化摄取值比值（SUVr）之间存在显著的相关性（R=0.848，P<0.001），配对样本 t 检验显示两种方法之间无显著差异（P=0.62）。这两种方法都揭示了tau 蛋白保留程度高的一致脑区。
tau PET 模板与传统的 MRI 辅助策略相当。此外，与 MRI 辅助方法相比，tau PET 模板更方便、更易于使用。更重要的是，在大多数临床情况下，接受 PET/CT 检查的 AD 患者通常没有 MRI 图像，在这种情况下，传统的 MRI 辅助方法将无法应用。我们的 tau PET 模板克服了这一缺陷，可能成为 AD 研究中的有用工具。
该 tau PET 模板性能良好，可能成为未来 AD 研究中的有用工具。
