The Use of Random Forests to Identify Brain Regions on Amyloid and FDG PET Associated With MoCA Score. (June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zukotynski, Katherine; Gaudet, Vincent; Kuo, Phillip H.; Adamo, Sabrina; Goubran, Maged; Scott, Christopher J.M.; Bocti, Christian; Borrie, Michael; Chertkow, Howard; Frayne, Richard; Hsiung, Robin; Laforce, Robert; Noseworthy, Michael D.; Prato, Frank S.; Sahlas, Demetrios J.; Smith, Eric E.; Sossi, Vesna; Thiel, Alexander; Soucy, Jean-Paul; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Black, Sandra E.
• Is Part Of: Clinical nuclear medicine. Volume 45:Number 6(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Subjects: amyloid -- 18F-FDG -- PET -- random forest -- Montreal Cognitive Assessment score; Nuclear medicine -- Periodicals; Radioisotope scanning -- Periodicals; Nuclear Medicine -- Periodicals; 616.07575
• DOI: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000003043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0363-9762

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate random forests (RFs) to identify ROIs on 18 F-florbetapir and 18 F-FDG PET associated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score. Materials and Methods: Fifty-seven subjects with significant white matter disease presenting with either transient ischemic attack/lacunar stroke or mild cognitive impairment from early Alzheimer disease, enrolled in a multicenter prospective observational trial, had MoCA and 18 F-florbetapir PET; 55 had 18 F-FDG PET. Scans were processed using the MINC toolkit to generate SUV ratios, normalized to cerebellar gray matter ( 18 F-florbetapir PET), or pons ( 18 F-FDG PET). SUV ratio data and MoCA score were used for supervised training of RFs programmed in MATLAB. Results: 18 F-Florbetapir PETs were randomly divided into 40 training and 17 testing scans; 100 RFs of 1000 trees, constructed from a random subset of 16 training scans and 20 ROIs, identified ROIs associated with MoCA score: right posterior cingulate gyrus, right anterior cingulate gyrus, left precuneus, left posterior cingulate gyrus, and right precuneus. Amyloid increased with decreasing MoCA score. 18 F-FDG PETs were randomly divided into 40 training and 15 testing scans; 100 RFs of 1000 trees, each tree constructed from a random subset of 16 training scans and 20 ROIs, identified ROIs associated with MoCA score: left fusiform gyrus, left precuneus, left posterior cingulate gyrus, right precuneus, and left middle orbitofrontal gyrus. 18 F-FDG decreased with decreasing MoCA score. Conclusions: Random forests help pinpoint clinically relevant ROIs associated with MoCA score; amyloid increased and 18 F-FDG decreased with decreasing MoCA score, most significantly in the posterior cingulate gyrus.