Work

Statistical non-independence of brain metabolite concentrations whether normalized to creatine or water

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: 1H-MRS investigators studying brain metabolite concentrations often attribute biological significance to correlations between calculated metabolite values within the same voxel. A recent report in this journal provides a valuable perspective on how statistical non-independence of such values can undermine biological interpretations of their correlations. However, careful examination of this issue suggests their critical analysis does not go far enough. Hong et al. claim that appropriate water normalization, unlike creatine normalization, eliminates the problem of spurious correlation. Both logical and empirical considerations show this is not the case. Correlations between water-normalized metabolite values are also prone to substantial spurious correlations.

Source: Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

DOI: 10.1177/0271678x241290018

Author: Richard J Maddock

Institutions: University of California Davis Medical Center, University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications

Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,200

OpenAlex ID: W4403547722

FWCI: 0.233

Cites: 8

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10