Priya Sarv, Reutzel Abigail, Ferreira Dalla Pria Otavio Augusto, Goetz Sawyer, Pham Hanh Td, Alatoum Aiah, Aher Pritish Y, Narayanasamy Sabarish, Nagpal Prashant, Carter Knute D
Department of Radiology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa, USA.
Department of Radiology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa, USA.
Eur J Radiol. 2025 Feb;183:111891. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2024.111891. Epub 2024 Dec 16.
To investigate the effect of ComBat harmonization on the stability of myocardial radiomic features derived from multi-energy CT reconstructions.
A retrospective study was conducted on 205 patients who underwent dual-energy chest CTA at a single center. The data was reconstructed into multiple spectral reconstructions (mixed energy simulating standard 120 Kv acquisition and monoenergetic images ranging from 40 to 190 keV in increments of 10). The left ventricle myocardium was segmented using semiautomated software (Syngo.Via FRONTIER, version 5.0.2; Siemens). Radiomic features were extracted from multiple spectral reconstructions (batches). The consistency of these radiomics features across different batches was evaluated with and without ComBat harmonization using Cohen's d and Principal component analysis (PCA). Both parametric and nonparametric ComBat methods were considered.
Without any ComBat technique, 43.40% of features remained consistent across all multienergy reconstructions. Applying ComBat harmonization increased this consistency to 98.37% with parametric empirical bayes (EB) ComBat and EB M-ComBat, and to 91.52% and 92.33% with nonparametric EB ComBat and nonparametric EB M-ComBat, respectively. PCA without ComBat revealed noticeable differences in the first two principal components between batches, indicating a batch effect or unstable radiomic features. Following ComBat harmonization, the principal components showed more consistency between batches, demonstrating radiomics feature stability between batches.
ComBat harmonization enhanced the consistency of radiomic features from multi-energy CT data. Integrating ComBat harmonization may lead to more reproducible results in multienergy CT radiomics studies.
研究ComBat归一化对多能CT重建衍生的心肌影像组学特征稳定性的影响。
对在单一中心接受双能胸部CTA检查的205例患者进行回顾性研究。将数据重建为多个光谱重建图像（模拟标准120Kv采集的混合能量图像以及40至190keV范围内以10keV递增的单能图像）。使用半自动软件（Syngo.Via FRONTIER，版本5.0.2；西门子）分割左心室心肌。从多个光谱重建图像（批次）中提取影像组学特征。使用Cohen's d和主成分分析（PCA）评估有无ComBat归一化时这些影像组学特征在不同批次间的一致性。同时考虑了参数化和非参数化的ComBat方法。
在未使用任何ComBat技术的情况下，所有多能重建图像中43.40%的特征保持一致。应用ComBat归一化后，参数化经验贝叶斯（EB）ComBat和EB M-ComBat使这种一致性提高到98.37%，非参数化EB ComBat和非参数化EB M-ComBat分别使其提高到91.52%和92.33%。未使用ComBat的PCA显示批次间前两个主成分存在显著差异，表明存在批次效应或影像组学特征不稳定。ComBat归一化后，主成分在批次间显示出更高的一致性，证明了批次间影像组学特征的稳定性。
ComBat归一化增强了多能CT数据中影像组学特征的一致性。在多能CT影像组学研究中整合ComBat归一化可能会带来更可重复的结果。
