The value of MRI-based radiomics for evaluating early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

This study aimed to evaluate the value of machine learning models (ML) based on MRI radiomics in diagnosing early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS). A total of 164 patients (114 in the training cohort and 50 in the testing cohort) with pSS (n=82) or healthy controls (HC) (n=82) were enrolled. Itksnap software was used to perform two-dimensional segmentation of the bilateral parotid glands on T1-weighted (T1WI) and fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging (fs-T2WI) images. A total of 1548 texture features of the parotid glands were extracted using radiomics software. A radiomics score (Radscore) was constructed and calculated. A t-test was used to compare the Radscore between the two groups. Finally, five machine learning models were trained and tested to identify early pSS parotid injury, and the performance of the machine learning models was evaluated by calculating the acceptance operating curve (ROC) and other parameters. The Radscores between the pSS and HC groups showed significant statistical differences (p<0.001). Among the five machine learning models, the Extra Trees Classifier (ETC) model performed high predictive efficacy in identifying early pSS parotid injury, with an AUC of 0.87 in the testing set. MRI radiomics–based machine learning models can effectively diagnose early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren’s syndrome.