Radiomics nomogram analysis of T2-fBLADE-TSE in pulmonary nodules evaluation

Objectives: To develop and validate a radiomics nomogram for differentiating between malignant pulmonary nodules and benign nodules. Methods: 56 benign and 51 malignant nodules from 96 patients were analyzed using manual segmentation of the T2-fBLADE-TSE, while the nodules signal intensity (SIlesion), lesion muscle ratio (LMR) and nodule size were all measured and recorded. The maximum relevance and minimum redundancy (mRMR) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used to select nonzero coefficients and develop the model in pulmonary nodules diagnosis. The radiomics nomogram was also developed. The clinical prediction value was determined by the decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: The nodule size, SIlesion and LMR of the benign group were 1.78 +/- 0.57 cm, 227.50 +/- 81.39 and 2.40 +/- 1.27 respectively, in contrast to the 2.00 +/- 0.64 cm, 232.87 +/- 82.21 and 2.17 +/- 0.91, respectively, in the malignant group (P = 0.09, 0.60 and 0.579). A total of 13 radiomics features were retained. The Rad-score of the benign nodules group was lower than that of the malignant nodules group (P < 0.001 & 0.049, training & test set). The AUC of radiomics signature for nodules diagnosis was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.73-0.91) in the training set and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.51-0.90) in the test set. A nomogram, consisting of 13 radiomics features and nodule size, produced good prediction in the training set (AUC, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73-0.91), which was significantly better than that of T2-based quantitative parameters (AUC, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.50-0.75, P = 0.003). In the test set, the performance of radiomics nomogram (AUC, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.90) was also better than that of T2-based quantitative parameters (AUC, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.25-0.67) (P = 0.145). The DCA showed that radiomics nomogram and T2-based quantitative parameter had overall net benefits, while the performance of nomogram was better. Conclusion: We constructed and validated a T2-fBLADE-TSE-based radiomics nomogram that can help to differentiate between malignant pulmonary nodules and benign nodules.

Automated summary

A radiomics nomogram was developed based on manual segmentation of different pulmonary nodules and measurement of signal intensity, nodule size, and other parameters, successfully distinguishing between malignant and benign nodules. The nomogram performed better in both the training and test sets compared to T2-based quantitative parameters.