IMR Press / JIN / Volume 22 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.31083/j.jin2204101
Open Access Original Research
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) Analysis Based on Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and Classification Using Multi-Metric in Alzheimer's Disease
Show Less
1 Department of Mathematics, Taizhou University, 225300 Taizhou, Jiangsu, China
2 Department of Applied Mathematics, Nanjing Audit University, 211815 Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
*Correspondence: zhanfeibiao@yeah.net (Feibiao Zhan)
J. Integr. Neurosci. 2023, 22(4), 101; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin2204101
Submitted: 12 November 2022 | Revised: 14 January 2023 | Accepted: 17 January 2023 | Published: 20 July 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a brain disorder characterized by atrophy of cerebral cortex and neurofibrillary tangles. Accurate identification of individuals at high risk of developing AD is key to early intervention. Combining neuroimaging markers derived from diffusion tensor images with machine learning techniques, unique anatomical patterns can be identified and further distinguished between AD and healthy control (HC). Methods: In this study, 37 AD patients (ADs) and 36 healthy controls (HCs) from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative were applied to tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis and multi-metric classification research. Results: The TBSS results showed that the corona radiata, corpus callosum and superior longitudinal fasciculus were the white matter fiber tracts which mainly suffered the severe damage in ADs. Using support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) method, the classification performance received a decent improvement. In addition, the integration of fractional anisotropy (FA) + mean diffusivity (MD) + radial diffusivity (RD) into multi-metric could effectively separate ADs from HCs. The rank of significance of diffusion metrics was FA > axial diffusivity (DA) > MD > RD in our research. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that the TBSS and machine learning method could play a guidance role on clinical diagnosis.

Keywords
Alzheimer's disease
diffusion tensor imaging
diffusion metric
tract-based spatial statistics
support vector machine
classification
Funding
12202208/National Natural Science Foundation of China
22KJB310019/Basic Science (Natural Science) Research Project of Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province
22KJB130009/Basic Science (Natural Science) Research Project of Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province
TZXY2021QDJJ001/Scientific Research Foundation of high-level personnel of Taizhou University
2021QNPY015/Research and Cultivation Project for Young Teachers of Nanjing Audit University
2022 Double-Innovation Doctor of Jiangsu Province
“2022 Taizhou Tuo Ju Project” for Young science and Technology Talents
Project of Excellent Science and Technology Innovation Team of Taizhou University
Figures
Fig. 1.
Share
Back to top