Jeffrey Dewey1, George Han2, Troy Russell1, Jared Price1, Daniel McCaffrey1, Ekta Sem1, Joy Chinazom Anyanwu1, Charles Guttmann1, Bradford Navia3, Ronald Cohen2, David Tate1
1Center for Neurological Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 2Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA; 3Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
While software packages designed to automatically identify subcortical structures can greatly increase the efficiency of volumetric studies, notable differences in the performance of these tools have previously been reported. The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy and consistency of volumetric data for several clinically relevant subcortical structures obtained using three methods: manual tracing, Freesurfer, and SPM. Freesurfer output was more accurate and consistent relative to manual tracings than that of SPM in the majority of structures. However, the inaccuracy and variability of both tools suggest that researchers supplement their use with visual inspection to ensure reliable data.