Distinguishing brain inflammation from grade II glioma in population without contrast enhancement: a radiomics analysis based on conventional MRI.

PURPOSE

In populations without contrast enhancement, the imaging features of atypical brain parenchyma inflammations can mimic those of grade II gliomas. The aim of this study was to assess the value of the conventional MR-based radiomics signature in differentiating brain inflammation from grade II glioma.

METHODS

Fifty-seven patients (39 patients with grade II glioma and 18 patients with inflammation) were divided into primary (n = 44) and validation cohorts (n = 13). Radiomics features were extracted from T-weighted images (TWI) and T-weighted images (TWI). Two-sample t-test and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression were adopted to select features and build radiomics signature models for discriminating inflammation from glioma. The predictive performance of the models was evaluated via area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and compared with the radiologists' assessments.

RESULTS

Based on the primary cohort, we developed TWI, TWI and combination (TWI + TWI) models for differentiating inflammation from glioma with 4, 8, and 5 radiomics features, respectively. Among these models, TWI and combination models achieved better diagnostic efficacy, with AUC of 0.980, 0.988 in primary cohort and that of 0.950, 0.925 in validation cohort, respectively. The AUCs of radiologist 1's and 2's assessments were 0.661 and 0.722, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The signature based on radiomics features helps to differentiate inflammation from grade II glioma and improved performance compared with experienced radiologists, which could potentially be useful in clinical practice.