Influence of Expert-Dependent Variability over the Performance of Noninvasive Fibrosis Assessment in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C by Means of Texture Analysis

Texture analysis is viewed as a method to enhance the diagnosis power of classical B-mode ultrasound image. The present paper aims to evaluate and eliminate the dependence between the human expert and the performance of such a texture analysis system in predicting the cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis C patients. 125 consecutive chronic hepatitis C patients were included in this study. Ultrasound images were acquired from each patient and four human experts established regions of interest. Textural analysis tool was evaluated. The performance of this approach depends highly on the human expert that establishes the regions of interest (P < 0.05). The novel algorithm that automatically establishes regions of interest can be compared with a trained radiologist. In classical form met in the literature, the noninvasive diagnosis through texture analysis has limited utility in clinical practice. The automatic ROI establishment tool is very useful in eliminating the expert-dependent variability.