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Abstract #4546

Comparison of Longitudinal & Cross-Sectional Cortical Thickness Measurements

Kunio Nakamura1, Robert J. Fox2, Elizabeth Fisher1

1Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States; 2Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment & Research, Cleveland Clinic


Longitudinal change in cortical thickness is clinically relevant in multiple sclerosis and neurodegenerative disorders but difficult to detect. CLADA is a new longitudinal method for the measurement of changes in cortical thickness. CLADA combines MRIs from all time points and creates unbiased subject-specific template before generating a cortical surface model and longitudinally deforming to each MRI. CLADA is evaluated for its reproducibility and compared to a cross-sectional method where each MRI is independently analyzed. Compared to the cross-sectional method, CLADA reduced variability, and the results suggest that CLADA can be used to reliably measure the change in cortical thickness.

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