The Psychiatric MR Spectroscopy
Study Group session will be devoted to discussion of methodological
issues that are encountered when organizing a multicenter multimodal
multivendor human subjects MR imaging study related to psychiatry
and/or neurology. The focus will be on image acquisition parameter
choices that one has to make when designing such a study and on the
likelihood of obtaining comparable results from different centers,
especially when the MRI scanners being used are manufactured by
different companies. We will assign the four available kiosks to 1)
structural brain imaging, 2) DTI, 3) resting state fMRI and 4)
1H-MRS/MRSI. Knowledgeable technical scientists will be invited who
are familiar with how these methods are implemented in GE, Siemens
and Philips hardware to make a short presentation at the respective
kiosk on the optimal parameter choices for the particular type of
image acquisition on a particular vendor's scanner. In other words
there will be 12 presenters at 4 kiosks (three presenters at each
kiosk). The presentations will be followed by discussion related to
how to obtain comparability across manufacturers. Attendees can
circulate between the kiosk discussions as they like. Assigned
members of the study group will be present as listeners at each
kiosk. These individuals will then summarize each of the kiosk
discussions from the podium during the final 15 minutes. These final
summaries will be posted on the study group website. |