A semiautomated radiomics model based on multimodal dual-layer spectral CT for preoperative discrimination of the invasiveness of pulmonary ground-glass nodules

BACKGROUND: In recent years, spectral computed tomography (CT) has shown excellent performance in the diagnosis of ground-glass nodules (GGNs) invasiveness; however, no research has combined spectral multimodal data and radiomics analysis for comprehensive analysis and exploration. Therefore, this study goes a step further on the basis of the previous research: to investigate the value of dual-layer spectral CT-based multimodal radiomics in accessing the invasiveness of lung adenocarcinoma manifesting as GGNs. METHODS: In this study, 125 GGNs with pathologically confirmed preinvasive adenocarcinoma (PIA) and lung adenocarcinoma were divided into a training set (n=87) and a test set (n=38). Each lesion was automatically detected and segmented by the pre-trained neural networks, and 63 multimodal radiomic features were extracted. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was used to select target features, and a rad-score was constructed in the training set. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to establish a joint model which combined age, gender, and the rad-score. The diagnostic performance of the two models was compared by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and precision-recall curve. The difference between the two models was compared by the ROC analysis. The test set was used to evaluate the predictive performance and calibrate the model. RESULTS: Five radiomic features were selected. In the training and test sets, the area under the curve (AUC) of the radiomics model was 0.896 (95% CI: 0.830–0.962) and 0.881 (95% CI: 0.777–0.985) respectively, and the AUC of the joint model was 0.932 (95% CI: 0.882–0.982) and 0.887 (95% CI: 0.786–0.988) respectively. There was no significant difference in AUC between the radiomics model and joint model in the training and test sets (0.896 vs. 0.932, P=0.088; 0.881 vs. 0.887, P=0.480). CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal radiomics based on dual-layer spectral CT showed good predictive performance in differentiating the invasiveness of GGNs, which could assist in the decision of clinical treatment strategies.