Impact of artificial intelligence-based and traditional image preprocessing and resampling on MRI-based radiomics for classification of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the impact of image preprocessing methods, including traditional and artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques, on the performance of MRI-based radiomics for predicting tumour aggressiveness in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods: We retrospectively analysed MRI data from 69 patients with PTC, acquired between January 2011 and April 2023, alongside corresponding histopathology. MRI scans underwent N4 bias field correction and resampling using 10 traditional methods and an AI-based technique, synthetic multi-orientation resolution enhancement (SMORE). Radiomic features were extracted from the original and preprocessed images. Recursive feature elimination with random forests was used for feature selection, and predictive models were developed using XGBoost. The performance of the model was assessed by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) across 1000 iterations.

Results: The combination of the correction of the bias field of N4 with SMORE resampling produced the highest mean AUC (0.75), significantly outperforming all traditional resampling methods ( $P<.001$ ). The lowest mean AUC (0.66) was observed with nearest neighbour resampling. Texture-based radiomic features, particularly the standard deviation of the grey-level co-occurrence matrix autocorrelation, were frequently selected in models using SMORE-resampled images.

Conclusions: Preprocessing techniques critically influence the predictive performance of MRI-based radiomics in PTC. The combination of N4 bias field correction and SMORE resampling enhances accuracy, highlighting the necessity of optimizing preprocessing pipelines.

Advances in knowledge: This study demonstrates the superiority of AI-driven preprocessing techniques, such as SMORE, in improving MRI radiomic models, paving the way for enhanced clinical decision-making in PTC management.