The Third MELD Project Teleconference Meeting

The Third MELD Project Teleconference Meeting

Hello! :wave: Please find the minutes for the Third MELD Project Teleconference meeting below.

Date:

23rd January 2019, 8am and 5pm UK time

Present:

Sophie Adler-Wagstyl (SAW; Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UK), Konrad Adler-Wagstyl (KAW; University of Cambridge, UK), Z. Irene Wang (ZIW; Cleveland Clinic, USA), Yawu Liu (University of Eastern Finland, Finland), Marcus Likeman (University Hospitals Bristol, UK), Xiaozhen You (Children’s National, USA), Pasquale Striano (Università di Genova, Italy), Gavin Winston (The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UK), John Duncan (The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UK)

1. AES meeting and conferences

  • SAW briefly discussed the AES meeting and highlighted the minutes on the MELD website.
  • SAW discussed future conferences for potential MELD meetings.
    • Currently these might include OHBM 2019 (Rome), IEC 2019 (Bangkok), AES 2019 (Baltimore), ECE 2020 (Geneva)
    • IW raised ISMRM in Montreal (May 2019). SAW and KAW are unable to attend.

2. Data, Protocols and scripts

  • SAW shared that MELD has now reached the original target of 400 patients, with 380 controls :tada:
  • This was in time for the original January 2019 deadline.
  • SAW proposed allowing new sites to join:
    • MELD is an inclusive, open project
    • Additional data can be used for validation
    • The caveat is that their data may not be included in the initial MELD analyses / publications
      • Sites confirmed that they were happy with this solution

3. Site-level lesion characteristics

  • KAW three figures showing preliminary analyses of the full cohort
    • Demographic data for patient and control groups
    • Lesion topography
    • Group level structural features differentiate lesional tissue
      • Cortical thickness - increased
      • ‘Blurring’ - decreased
      • Intrinsic curvature - increased
      • FLAIR intensities sampled from the top of the cortex down to within the white matter
        • Decreased in cortex (hypointense)
        • Increased in white matter (hyperintense)

4. Authorship

  • SAW commented that a large number of people have contributed to MELD and this is currently not well documented.
  • Sites will be sent a form to ensure all contributors are included on future conference and manuscript submissions.

5. Open forum

  • ‘Should the sites be asked to share genetic and further clinical data (eg. seizure frequency, EEG features etc)’?
    • This was discussed in both teleconference sessions.
    • Some sites thought this would be problematic:
      • Current ethics/IRB approval did not include these extra data.
      • Many sites have alread completed their data acquisition
    • Other sites did not think this would be a problem

:arrow_forward: The initial analyses will proceed as currently planned. MELD can be used as a platform for future analysis proposals that could include the above.

  • How is MELD dealing with normal variation in surface-based features eg thick motor cortex?
    • KAW explained that the cohort undergoes several normalisation steps included interhemispheric asymmetry calculations and normalisation by controls. These steps help to account for healthy regional variability.
  • Suggested analyses:
    • Is topographic pattern consistent across all patients/histologies?
    • Is there a difference in outcomes between those operated as children vs adults?

:arrow_forward: These analysis will be carried out.

  • The pattern of FLAIR features is inconsistent across the 6 depths.
    • SAW explained that within the cortex FLAIR/T2 is relatively decreased, whereas within the white matter, the transmantle sign is an increase in FLAIR/T2 intensity.
  • Can/should sites update their patients’ histology reports if these become available?
    • Yes please! It is very straightforward to incorporate updated demographics files for sites if such changes occur. Please correct the csv file and send this to us.

6. Going forward

  • The next teleconference will take place in 2 months’ time and will be scheduled for the same two time points (i.e., 8am and 5pm UK time)

Looking forward to the next meeting! :sunny: