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Harmonising Multisite Brain MRI Data: Insights from the Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) PET-MR harmonisation Study

Lookup NU author(s): Professor John-Paul TaylorORCiD, Professor John O'Brien

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2025 The Alzheimer's Association. Alzheimer's & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association. BACKGROUND: The DPUK PET-MR Harmonisation Study aims to quantify within-site and across-site variability of brain scans across scanning equipment. Brain images were acquired from 8 PET-MR scanners to optimise clinical trial design and evaluate PET-MR methods. Scans were collected from healthy elderly participants in three groups: Repeated, Intra-manufacturer, and Inter-manufacturer (Table 1). This study examines variability in imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) from T1-weighted MRI scans and evaluates harmonisation methods. METHOD: All T1w scans were processed using the UK Biobank (UKB) pipeline to extract volumetric IDPs (total brain, tissue-specific, hippocampus). Within-subject (scanner) variability was quantified using the Coefficient of Variation (CoV) for each subject pair and IDP. In the inter-manufacturer group, CoV and cross-subject variability (biological variability measured as across subjects' standard deviation of within-subject mean IDP) were assessed following three harmonisation approaches: IQM-based: Identify image quality metrics (IQMs) (e.g., noise, contrast) that significantly differ across scanners and exhibit low correlation (-0.5

Publication metadata

Author(s): Bhalerao GV, Markiewicz PJ, Thomas DL, de Vita E, Parkes L, Thompson G, MacKewn J, Krokos G, Wimberley C, Hallett W, Su L, Smith S, Malhotra P, Hoggard N, Taylor J-P, Ritchie C, Wardlaw JM, Matthews PM, Aigbirho FI, O'Brien JT, Hammers A, Fox NC, Herholz K, Barkhof F, Miller K, Matthews J, Griffanti L

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Alzheimer's & Dementia

Year: 2025

Volume: 21

Online publication date: 24/12/2025

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

Date deposited: 08/01/2026

ISSN (print): 1552-5260

ISSN (electronic): 1552-5279

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/alz70856_097537

DOI: 10.1002/alz70856_097537

PubMed id: 41442709

Notes: Supplement: Biomarkers

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