Age, sex, and vendor contributions to variance in Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) 'Big Data

The aim of this study was to evaluate the contributions of age, sex, and MRI vendor to variance in Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) metrics, with a focus on understanding the impact of these factors in large-scale healthy brain datasets. A dataset of 2,700 DTI scans from healthy controls across multiple sites and MRI vendors was analyzed. The DTI scalar metrics fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were processed and the influence of age, sex, vendor, and brain atlas selection were determined. A statistical analysis was conducted and revealed significant (p<0.05) age-related differences in DTI metrics, with older participants showing reduced FA and increased MD, in line with known microstructural changes. Sex differences were observed, with females exhibiting slightly higher FA and lower MD in certain brain regions. Vendor variability was also noted, with all three MRI vendors showing significant differences in FA with Siemens machines typically exhibiting higher FA values and GE machines lower FA values (i.e. FASiemens > FAPhilips > FAGE). Atlas selection also highlighted some specific ROI behaviour (e.g. tapetum of the corpus callosum) as one of the most significant regions of interest (ROIs) in the JHU-Tracts atlas that demonstrated a large amount of deterioration with age, particularly in females. These findings emphasize the need to account for biological factors such as age and sex, as well as technical factors like ROI selection and MRI vendor, when interpreting DTI data. The results demonstrate the potential of large-scale, multi-vendor datasets to uncover meaningful biological trends, while also addressing the challenges of scanner-specific variability. Although previous work has shown sex and age differences, this is the first large scale DTI analysis that has included age, sex, and MRI vendor as sources of variance in one model.