Sensitivity of physeal-metaphyseal tractography correlations with height velocity for fractional anisotropy threshold selection.
8 affiliations
- 1Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
- 2MicroscopIA Research Group, MicroscopIA, Bogotá, Colombia.
- 3Department of Radiology, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA.
- 4The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- 5UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, Oakland, CA, USA.
- 6UCSF Department of Radiology & Biomedical imaging, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- 7Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
- 8Department of Children's and Women's Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected].
Abstract
Objective
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography of the physeal-metaphyseal complex (PMC) provides insights into skeletal maturation. Fractional anisotropy (FA) minimal and maximal thresholds of 0.15 and 1.0, respectively, are commonly used to reconstruct tracts; these values were developed for highly organized tissues and may exclude the less organized hypertrophic and transitional zones that drive growth. Whether lowering the FA thresholds better captures growth-sensitive features and correlates with annualized height velocity is unknown.Material and methods
Forty-five healthy adolescents (20 boys; 12-17 years) underwent 3 T DTI of the distal femoral PMC. Deterministic tractography was performed using nine previously untested FA threshold combinations (FA_min: 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 paired with FA_max: 0.40, 0.50, 0.60) and a conventional threshold (0.15-1.0). Partial Pearson correlations between extracted metrics (tract FA, apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC], volume) and annualized height velocity were computed, controlling for Tanner stage.Results
Tract ADC showed strong positive correlations with height velocity across all thresholds (r = 0.55-0.63). Tract FA showed consistent negative correlations (r = -0.38 to -0.45). Tract volume correlations were threshold-dependent: positive at lower FA_min thresholds (r = 0.33-0.37, at FA_min = 0.05) but attenuated or reversed at higher FA_min thresholds (r = -0.26, at 0.15-1.0).Conclusion
Tract ADC and FA are robust metrics of growth plate activity, insensitive to FA threshold selection. Tract volume associations with height velocity are threshold-dependent, with lower FA_min thresholds capturing growth-sensitive PMC tissue and lower FA_max excluding inactive PMC tissues. These findings underscore the importance of standardized tractography parameters in growth plate DTI studies.Key points
Question How can we prevent conventional DTI FA thresholds from underestimating growth-sensitive tract volumes in the pediatric PMC? Findings Lower FA thresholds accurately capture tract volume correlations with height velocity, while tract ADC and FA correlate reliably across all thresholds. Relevance statement Optimizing FA thresholds in physeal-metaphyseal-complex DTI improves microstructural imaging correlations with height velocity, ensures reproducible data in pediatric skeletal growth studies, enhances noninvasive skeletal growth monitoring in adolescents, and potentially supplements traditional bone-age radiographs.
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BibTeX
@article{perdomoluna2026sensitivity,
title = {{Sensitivity of physeal-metaphyseal tractography correlations with height velocity for fractional anisotropy threshold selection.}},
author = {Camilo Perdomo-Luna and Diego Jaramillo and Laura Santos and Sogol Mostoufi-Moab and Ingrid Galvis and Huong Do and Sachin Jambawalikar and Bamidele Kammen and Ola Kvist},
journal = {European radiology experimental},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1186/s41747-026-00826-8},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42909757},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sensitivity of physeal-metaphyseal tractography correlations with height velocity for fractional anisotropy threshold selection.
AU - Camilo Perdomo-Luna
AU - Diego Jaramillo
AU - Laura Santos
AU - Sogol Mostoufi-Moab
AU - Ingrid Galvis
AU - Huong Do
AU - Sachin Jambawalikar
AU - Bamidele Kammen
AU - Ola Kvist
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - European radiology experimental
DO - 10.1186/s41747-026-00826-8
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42909757
AB - Objective Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography of the physeal-metaphyseal complex (PMC) provides insights into skeletal maturation. Fractional anisotropy (FA) minimal and maximal thresholds of 0.15 and 1.0, respectively, are commonly used to reconstruct tracts; these values were developed for highly organized tissues and may exclude the less organized hypertrophic and transitional zones that drive growth. Whether lowering the FA thresholds better captures growth-sensitive features and correlates with annualized height velocity is unknown.Material and methods Forty-five healthy adolescents (20 boys; 12-17 years) underwent 3 T DTI of the distal femoral PMC. Deterministic tractography was performed using nine previously untested FA threshold combinations (FA_min: 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 paired with FA_max: 0.40, 0.50, 0.60) and a conventional threshold (0.15-1.0). Partial Pearson correlations between extracted metrics (tract FA, apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC], volume) and annualized height velocity were computed, controlling for Tanner stage.Results Tract ADC showed strong positive correlations with height velocity across all thresholds (r = 0.55-0.63). Tract FA showed consistent negative correlations (r = -0.38 to -0.45). Tract volume correlations were threshold-dependent: positive at lower FA_min thresholds (r = 0.33-0.37, at FA_min = 0.05) but attenuated or reversed at higher FA_min thresholds (r = -0.26, at 0.15-1.0).Conclusion Tract ADC and FA are robust metrics of growth plate activity, insensitive to FA threshold selection. Tract volume associations with height velocity are threshold-dependent, with lower FA_min thresholds capturing growth-sensitive PMC tissue and lower FA_max excluding inactive PMC tissues. These findings underscore the importance of standardized tractography parameters in growth plate DTI studies.Key points Question How can we prevent conventional DTI FA thresholds from underestimating growth-sensitive tract volumes in the pediatric PMC? Findings Lower FA thresholds accurately capture tract volume correlations with height velocity, while tract ADC and FA correlate reliably across all thresholds. Relevance statement Optimizing FA thresholds in physeal-metaphyseal-complex DTI improves microstructural imaging correlations with height velocity, ensures reproducible data in pediatric skeletal growth studies, enhances noninvasive skeletal growth monitoring in adolescents, and potentially supplements traditional bone-age radiographs.
SN - 2509-9280
ER -