Study on multi-parametric texture analysis for quantifying brain magnetic susceptibility in patients with Parkinson′s disease

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2025.01.008

Abstract

Abstract:

Objective ·To quantify brain iron content in Parkinson′s disease (PD) patients by using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) based on phase linearity fitting. Combined with texture analysis methods, the magnetic susceptibility distribution characteristics of gray matter nuclei in PD patients were quantitatively analyzed with multiple parameters and dimensions, and the sensitivity of texture features was evaluated with clinical scoring. Methods ·Quantitative susceptibility images from 20 PD patients and 20 healthy controls (HC) were analyzed retrospectively. Regions of interest in basal ganglia were manually segmented, followed by three-dimensional texture analysis by using gray-level run-length matrix (GLRLM). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to compare differences between the two groups, and the bilateral Pearson linear correlation coefficient ( r) was calculated to evaluate the correlation between texture parameters and UPDRS-III clinical scores. Results ·The analysis of texture feature parameters showed that there were significant differences between the PD and HC groups in the gray matter nuclei. Among all the texture feature parameters of GLRLM, LngREnch showed significant differences between the PD group and the HC group in the five gray matter nuclei measured. The average magnetic susceptibility of gray matter nuclei and GLRLM texture parameters were sensitive in distinguishing PD from HC (AUC>0.5). The AUC values of RLNonUni, LngREnch, ShrtREmp, and Fraction were higher than that of the average magnetization susceptibiliyt. The correlation analysis showed that RLNonUni and GLevNonU in the caudate nucleus (CN), as well as GLevNonU in the red nucleus (RN), were significantly correlated with UPDRS-III scores, while no significant clinical correlations were found for the remaining parameters. Conclusion ·Compared to the mean magnetic susceptibility values, GLRLM texture parameters provide better differentiation between the PD and HC groups. Multiparameter texture analysis offers a novel approach to QSM-based quantitative assessment of brain iron content, which can provide additional multidimensional quantitative information for the non-invasive diagnosis of PD.

Key words: Parkinson′s disease, quantitative susceptibility mapping, texture features, iron deposition

CLC Number:

R445.2

ZHAO Xinxin, PEI Mengchao. Study on multi-parametric texture analysis for quantifying brain magnetic susceptibility in patients with Parkinson′s disease[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Medical Science), 2025, 45(1): 69-78.

Figures/Tables 10

Fig 1 Schematic representation of the definition of regions of interest in gray matter nuclei and an illustration of the generation of gray-level run-length matrices

Tab 1 Description and equation of texture parameters based on run-length matrix （GLRLM）

Feature	Description	Equation
RLNonUni	run length non-uniformity	$∑ j = 1 N r (∑ i = 1 N g p i, j) 2 C$
GLevNonU	gray-level non-uniformity	$∑ i = 1 N g (∑ j = 1 N r p (i, j)) 2 C$
LngREmph	long-run emphasis	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r j 2 p (i, j) C$
ShrtREmp	short-run emphasis	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r p i, j j 2 C$
Fraction	fraction of image in runs	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r p i, j ∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r j p (i, j)$

Tab 1 Description and equation of texture parameters based on run-length matrix （GLRLM）

Feature	Description	Equation
RLNonUni	run length non-uniformity	$∑ j = 1 N r (∑ i = 1 N g p i, j) 2 C$
GLevNonU	gray-level non-uniformity	$∑ i = 1 N g (∑ j = 1 N r p (i, j)) 2 C$
LngREmph	long-run emphasis	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r j 2 p (i, j) C$
ShrtREmp	short-run emphasis	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r p i, j j 2 C$
Fraction	fraction of image in runs	$∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r p i, j ∑ i = 1 N g ∑ j = 1 N r j p (i, j)$

Tab 2 Demographic information on subjects

Item	PD ( n=20)	HC ( n=20)	χ²/F value	P value
Age/year	62.15±10.15	61.58±9.24	0.941	0.534
Gender/ n(%)			0.100	0.752
Male	11 (55.0)	10 (50.0)
Female	9 (45.0)	10 (50.0)
Height/cm	164.68±8.76	162.72±7.77	1.858	0.494
Weight/kg	71.17±8.84	60.83±10.23	2.049	0.152
BMI/(kg·m ^-2)	21.48±1.83	22.73±1.65	1.414	0.427

Tab 3 UPDRS-III scores of the PD patients

Patient	UPDRS-III/score
1	8
2	9
3	7
4	33
5	36
6	12
7	21
8	24
9	19
10	23
11	36
12	7
13	40
14	5
15	34
16	44
17	37
18	50
19	41
20	55

Tab 4 Intra-observer and inter-observer correlation coefficients for the measurements

Item	Measurement	Inter-reader correlation coefficient (95% CI)
Mean	Magnetic susceptibility value	0.91 (0.88—0.95)
GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.92 (0.88—0.97)
	GLevNonU	0.90 (0.87—0.95)
	LngREmph	0.91 (0.85—0.95)
	ShrtREmp	0.93 (0.89—0.94)
	Fraction	0.89 (0.86—0.92)

Fig 2 Comparisons of mean values of magnetic susceptibility and the relative D values of texture parameters

Tab 6 Results of the ROC curve analyses of texture parameters and mean magnetic susceptibility values between the PD and HC groups

Item	Measurement	AUC	P value
Mean	Magnetic susceptibility value	0.678	<0.001
GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.708	<0.001
	GLevNonU	0.646	<0.001
	LngREmph	0.777	<0.001
	ShrtREmp	0.714	<0.001
	Fraction	0.716	<0.001

Fig 3 Receiver operating characteristic curves of texture parameters and average magnetic susceptibility values between the PD group and HC group

Tab 7 Association between mean magnetic susceptibility values and texture features with UPDRS-III scores in the PD group

Gray Matter Nuclei		Measurement	r	r_adj²	P value
CN	Mean	Magnetic susceptibility	-0.305	0.043	0.191
	GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.755	0.546	<0.001
		GLevNonU	0.623	0.355	0.003
		LngREmph	-0.220	-0.005	0.352
		ShrtREmp	0.291	0.034	0.213
		Fraction	-0.201	-0.013	0.395
GP	Mean	Magnetic susceptibility	-0.038	-0.054	0.874
	GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.373	0.091	0.105
		GLevNonU	0.332	0.061	0.153
		LngREmph	0.273	0.023	0.244
		ShrtREmp	0.055	-0.052	0.817
		Fraction	-0.152	-0.031	0.521
PT	Mean	Magnetic susceptibility	0.038	-0.054	0.874
	GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.359	0.080	0.121
		GLevNonU	0.149	-0.032	0.530
		LngREmph	-0.349	0.073	0.132
		ShrtREmp	0.206	-0.011	0.384
		Fraction	-0.262	0.017	0.264
SN	Mean	Magnetic susceptibility	0.627	0.359	0.003
	GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	-0.231	0.001	0.326
		GLevNonU	0.129	-0.038	0.588
		LngREmph	0.222	-0.004	0.347
		ShrtREmp	-0.237	0.004	0.314
		Fraction	0.281	0.028	0.230
RN	Mean	Magnetic susceptibility	0.667	0.413	0.001
	GLRLM feature	RLNonUni	0.101	-0.045	0.670
		GLevNonU	0.826	0.664	<0.001
		LngREmph	-0.092	-0.047	0.700
		ShrtREmp	0.697	0.457	0.001
		Fraction	0.434	0.143	0.056

Fig 4 Correlations of GLRLM texture parameters with UPDRS-III scores in the PD group

TrendMD

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