Introduction Structural brain imaging is paramount for the diagnosis of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), but it has low sensitivity leading to erroneous or late diagnosis. Methods A total of 515 subjects from two different bvFTD cohorts (training and independent validation cohorts) were used to perform voxel-wise morphometric analysis to identify regions with significant differences between bvFTD and controls. A random forest classifier was used to individually predict bvFTD from deformation-based morphometry differences in isolation and together with semantic fluency. Tenfold cross validation was used to assess the performance of the classifier within the training cohort. A second held-out cohort of genetically confirmed bvFTD cases was used for additional validation. Results Average 10-fold cross-validation accuracy was 89% (82% sensitivity, 93% specificity) using only MRI and 94% (89% sensitivity, 98% specificity) with the addition of semantic fluency. In the separate validation cohort of definite bvFTD, accuracy was 88% (81% sensitivity, 92% specificity) with MRI and 91% (79% sensitivity, 96% specificity) with added semantic fluency scores. Conclusion Our results show that structural MRI and semantic fluency can accurately predict bvFTD at the individual subject level within a completely independent validation cohort coming from a different and independent database.

MRI data-driven algorithm for the diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia

Borroni B.;Tagliavini F.;Ghidoni R.;Benussi A.;Bocchetta M.;Cosseddu M.;Gasparotti R.;Gazzina S.;Padovani A.;Pievani M.;Premi E.;
2021-01-01

Abstract

Introduction Structural brain imaging is paramount for the diagnosis of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), but it has low sensitivity leading to erroneous or late diagnosis. Methods A total of 515 subjects from two different bvFTD cohorts (training and independent validation cohorts) were used to perform voxel-wise morphometric analysis to identify regions with significant differences between bvFTD and controls. A random forest classifier was used to individually predict bvFTD from deformation-based morphometry differences in isolation and together with semantic fluency. Tenfold cross validation was used to assess the performance of the classifier within the training cohort. A second held-out cohort of genetically confirmed bvFTD cases was used for additional validation. Results Average 10-fold cross-validation accuracy was 89% (82% sensitivity, 93% specificity) using only MRI and 94% (89% sensitivity, 98% specificity) with the addition of semantic fluency. In the separate validation cohort of definite bvFTD, accuracy was 88% (81% sensitivity, 92% specificity) with MRI and 91% (79% sensitivity, 96% specificity) with added semantic fluency scores. Conclusion Our results show that structural MRI and semantic fluency can accurately predict bvFTD at the individual subject level within a completely independent validation cohort coming from a different and independent database.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11379/551135
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