Mesial Temporal Sclerosis: Accuracy of NeuroQuant versus Neuroradiologist

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We sought to compare the accuracy of a volumetric fully automated computer assessment of hippocampal volume asymmetry versus neuroradiologists' interpretations of the temporal lobes for mesial temporal sclerosis. Detecting mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) is important for the evaluation of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy as it often guides surgical intervention. One feature of MTS is hippocampal volume loss.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Electronic medical record and researcher reports of scans of patients with proved mesial temporal sclerosis were compared with volumetric assessment with an FDA-approved software package, NeuroQuant, for detection of mesial temporal sclerosis in 63 patients. The degree of volumetric asymmetry was analyzed to determine the neuroradiologists' threshold for detecting right-left asymmetry in temporal lobe volumes.

RESULTS: Thirty-six patients had left-lateralized MTS, 25 had right-lateralized MTS, and 2 had bilateral MTS. The estimated accuracy of the neuroradiologist was 72.6% with a κ statistic of 0.512 (95% CI, 0.315–0.710) [moderate agreement, P < 3 × 10⁻⁶]), whereas the estimated accuracy of NeuroQuant was 79.4% with a κ statistic of 0.588 (95% CI, 0.388–0.787) [moderate agreement, P < 2 × 10⁻⁶]). This discrepancy in accuracy was not statistically significant. When at least a 5%–10% volume discrepancy between temporal lobes was present, the neuroradiologists detected it 75%–80% of the time.

CONCLUSIONS: As a stand-alone fully automated software program that can process temporal lobe volume in 5–10 minutes, NeuroQuant compares favorably with trained neuroradiologists in predicting the side of mesial temporal sclerosis. Neuroradiologists can often detect even small temporal lobe volumetric changes visually.