Operationalizing the centiloid scale for [18F]florbetapir PET studies on PET/MRI

Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2023 May 16;15(2):e12434. doi: 10.1002/dad2.12434. eCollection 2023 Apr-Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: The Centiloid scale aims to harmonize amyloid beta (Aβ) positron emission tomography (PET) measures across different analysis methods. As Centiloids were created using PET/computerized tomography (CT) data and are influenced by scanner differences, we investigated the Centiloid transformation with data from Insight 46 acquired with PET/magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI).

Methods: We transformed standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) from 432 florbetapir PET/MRI scans processed using whole cerebellum (WC) and white matter (WM) references, with and without partial volume correction. Gaussian-mixture-modelling-derived cutpoints for Aβ PET positivity were converted.

Results: The Centiloid cutpoint was 14.2 for WC SUVRs. The relationship between WM and WC uptake differed between the calibration and testing datasets, producing implausibly low WM-based Centiloids. Linear adjustment produced a WM-based cutpoint of 18.1.

Discussion: Transformation of PET/MRI florbetapir data to Centiloids is valid. However, further understanding of the effects of acquisition or biological factors on the transformation using a WM reference is needed.

Highlights: Centiloid conversion of amyloid beta positron emission tomography (PET) data aims to standardize results.Centiloid values can be influenced by differences in acquisition.We converted florbetapir PET/magnetic resonance imaging data from a large birth cohort.Whole cerebellum referenced values could be reliably transformed to Centiloids.White matter referenced values may be less generalizable between datasets.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; amyloid beta; centiloid; florbetapir; positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging.