Friends with benefits: Sharing large-scale transcontinental brain MRI databases in LatAM-FINGERS and US POINTER

Abstract

Background Multicentric initiatives to study brain cognition in the elderly offers us a unique collection of brain imaging data accompanied by detailed neuroclinical and neuropsychological evaluations. U.S. POINTER and LatAm-FINGERS, part of the World Wide FINGERS, are both large-scale investigations of lifestyle interventions and its impact on cognitive function. These large-scale detailed data may offer an unprecedented opportunity to compare diverse populations.

Method Baseline MRI of subjects from multiple US centers (POINTER-US), distributed in 5 geographical regions, and from 9 latin-american countries (LatAm-FINGERS). The protocols vary from basic (3D T1, 3D FLAIR,T2* GRE, Cor T2 hippocampus, DWI) to advanced which also included ASL, rs-FMRI and DTI. Demographic information and clinical, cognitive and neuropsychological assessment were also included.

Result MRI data was collected from 662 participants in the United States (about 65% of the total anticipated U.S. POINTER neuroimaging sample) and from 542 subjects from 9 countries in latin-america (about 80% of the total anticipated LatAm-FINGERS neuroimaging sample), with around 1200 participants scanned (table1).

All participants have 3D T1, 3D FLAIR, T2* GRE images and either DWI or DTI images.

Comparative demographics from the 2 datasets shows similar mean age, a predominance of females, and slight differences in education (table 2). This will allow us to compare multiethnic and multicultural volumetric and functional brain MRI information, as well as disease markers, associated with thorough neurological and clinical assessment. Reasons for not acquiring MRI were mainly due to claustrophobia or scanner unavailability.

Conclusion This is an exceptional opportunity to have comparative large-scale databases, with anatomical and functional brain imaging from different populations, allowing us to study real world diverse brain data and better understand its relationships with demographics, health and risk characteristics, and cognition.