Evaluation of MRI-based radiomic features in heart morphologic variations as a consequence of autoimmune thyroid disorders

Radiomics (RC) was initially developed using computed tomography (CT) for oncological imaging. However, it can be applied to various scientific and clinical radiology fields regardless of the modalities involved. The purpose of this survey was to evaluate alterations in magnetic resonance imaging of the heart (CMR) in patients suffering from autoimmune thyroid disorders (AITD) by applying RC tools and mapping features. A total of 50 individuals were evaluated in this study. We searched for CMR examinations performed in our department between January 2019 and 2021 in patients with AITD. Thirty patients with AITD (21 men and 9 women, aged 51 to 78 years; mean age, 60 years) were enrolled in our survey. We enrolled a control group (CG) of 20 individuals (14 men and 6 women aged 53–87 years; mean age, 68 years) without AITD or cardiac disorders. Global native T1 and T2 mapping revealed no significant differences between groups. However, we identified significantly higher values of several texture parameters, including the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) entropy, gray-level run-length matrix (GLRLM; short-run high gray-level emphasis (SRHGE), GLCM (Energy), gray-level size zone matrix length matrix (GLZLM; LZLGE), GLZLM (SZLGE), DISCRETIZED (HISTO-Energy) GLCM (Dissimilarity), and GLCM (Contrast), in patients with AITD in comparison to the CG (P < .01). Our results indicate that several RC properties extracted from CMR images can be used to discriminate between the AITD and CG groups.