As there are several DTI studies using TBSS or VBA to investigate one kind of psychiatric disorder, we would like to make it clear that weather it is ok when conducting one meta-analysis of all the studies. Thanks a lot for your reply!

Dear _, to conduct a single meta-analysis of TBSS and VBA studies, you can use the TBSS template (we have indeed already done it).

My understanding of your reply is that the TBSS template is suitable for the combination of VBA studies and TBSS studies. Well, I have conducted meta-analyses of VBA studies using the TBSS template and the WM template respectively, and the results showed that the main clusters of the two meta-analyses were the same, but the voxels of the clusters for the WM template were much more. I have searched one related paper (Systematic review and voxel-based meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies in bipolar disorder), which included both TBSS and VBA studies, however, the meta-analysis conduced were just based on VBA studies. So, I would really appreciate it if you can show me the title of the paper you mentioned. Thanks a lot~~

Dear _,

using a TBSS template you will limit your analysis to that template, and that's why results will be slightly different than using a whole WM template. For example, you will not of course detect WM abnormalities outside the TBSS template.

However, while it's Ok to use a TBSS template for VBA studies, you cannot use a whole WM template for TBSS studies. The latter case would be similar to including a ROI-based study, i.e. you would be including abnormalities within the TBSS skeleton but excluding abnormalities outside the skeleton, thus biasing the results towards the skeleton.

The paper in which we use the TBSS template for combining VBA and TBSS studies is not published yet, I hope it'll be soon (please contact me for further details).

Best wishes,

Joaquim

Dr. Radua,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have learned a lot. :)

Best wishes,

Jing

Dr. Radua,

For the paper in which you use the TBSS template for combining VBA and TBSS studies, is it convenient now for you to supply me further details? Thank you so much for your reply. 


Best wishes,
Jing

Dear Jing, I think the following paper may be of interest:

Voxel-Based meta-analytical evidence of structural disconnectivity in major depression and bipolar disorder.
Wise T, Radua J, Nortje G, Cleare AJ, Young AH, Arnone D.
Biol Psychiatry 2015.
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.03.004

Hope this helps,