Abstract #2614

Harmonisation of multi-site MRS data with ComBat

Tiffany Bell^1,2,3, Kate J Godfrey^1,2,3, Ashley L Ware^2,3,4,5, Keith Owen Yeates^2,3,4, and Ashley D Harris^1,2,3

¹Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, ²Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, ³Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, ⁴Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, ⁵Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Synopsis

Multisite magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies are becoming increasingly more common, however data collection across multiple sites introduces non-biological variability that can mask true biological effects. Using PRESS and MEGA-PRESS data obtained from the BIG GABA repository and linear modelling, we show that (1) scanner vendor and data collection site is significantly associated with metabolite levels and (2) data harmonisation using ComBat successfully removes non-biological variance to reveal biological effects of interest. We therefore recommend ComBat as an approach to harmonise multi-site MRS data.

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