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Hi.
Recently, I analyzed patients who have taken 1.5T MRI ; (Because they had to go in MRI room with some metal materials) and normal controls who took 3.0T MRI. And, after recon and preprocessing of each group of patients and controls in freesurfer v6, I've found that many cortices of patients (1.5T MRI) were significantly reduced, compared with normal age-sex matched controls (3.0T MRI). When I searched in order to know if there is difference between 1.5T vs 3.0T MRI and magnetic field can make a huge difference in calculating volumes or thickness of cortices in Freesurfer, I can find only one article by Heinen and his colleague, reporting there is no big difference and different(1.5 vs 3.0T) magnetic field strength cannot make a significant difference. (Plos ONE, 2016)
Furthermore, given that data which is taken in 1.5T MRI is more likely to have more increased volumes or thickness of cerebral cortices than those of 3.0T MRI, I think that reduced cortical volumes which are calculated using 1.5T MRI have more significance than controls of 3.0T MRI...
Is it true that different magnetic strengths of MRI cannot change the result significantly in Freesurfer?
Thank you always!