Texture analysis of gray-scale ultrasound images for staging of hepatic fibrosis

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of texture analysis of gray-scale ultrasound (US) images for staging of hepatic fibrosis. Materials and Methods Altogether, 167 patients who had undergone routine US and laboratory tests for a fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index were included. Texture parameters were measured using a dedicated in-house software. Regions of interest were placed in five different segments (3, 5, 6, 7, 8) for each patient. The FIB-4 index was used as the reference standard for hepatic fibrosis grade. Comparisons of the texture parameters between different fibrosis groups were performed with the Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by receiver operating curve analysis. Results The study population comprised of patients with no fibrosis (FIB-4 < 1.45, n = 50), mild fibrosis (1.45 = FIB-4 = 2.35, n = 37), moderate fibrosis (2.35 3.25, n = 53). Skewness in hepatic segment 5 showed a difference between patients with no fibrosis and mild fibrosis (0.2392 ± 0.3361, 0.4134 ± 0.3004, respectively, p = 0.0109). The area under the curve of skewness for discriminating patients with no fibrosis from those with mild fibrosis was 0.660 (95% confidence interval, 0.551-0.758), with an estimated accuracy, sensitivity, specificity of 64%, 87%, 48%, respectively. Conclusion A significant difference was observed regarding skewness in segment 5 between patients with no fibrosis and patients with mild fibrosis. Copyrights