Predicting abnormal epicardial adipose tissue in psoriasis patients by integrating radiomics from non-contrast chest CT with serological biomarkers.

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis patients frequently present with cardiovascular comorbidities, which maybe associated with abnormal epicardial adipose tissue (EAT). This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of radiomics features derived from non-contrast chest CT (NCCT) combined with serological parameters for identifying abnormal EAT in psoriasis.

Methods: In this retrospective case-control study, we enrolled consecutive psoriasis patients who underwent chest NCCT between September 2021 and February 2024, along with a matched healthy control group. Psoriasis patients were stratified into mild-to-moderate (PASI ≤ 10) and severe (PASI > 10) groups based on the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Using TIMESlice, we extracted EAT volume, CT values, and 86 radiomics features. The cohort was randomly divided into a training (70%) and test (30%) set. LASSO regression selected radiomic features to calculate the Rad_Score. Serum uric acid (UA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were collected. We compared EAT volume, CT values, Rad_Score, UA, and CRP between groups and developed three models: Model A (UA, CRP, EAT CT values), Model B (Rad_Score), and Model C (UA, CRP, EAT CT values, Rad_Score). Model accuracy was evaluated using ROC curves (P < 0.05).

Results: The study included 77 psoriasis patients and 76 matched controls. Psoriasis patients had higher UA and CRP levels than controls (both P < 0.001). EAT CT value was higher in psoriasis (P = 0.020), with no volume difference. Eight radiomics features and Rad_Score significantly differed between groups (P < 0.001), and Rad_Score also higher in severe group than that in mild-to-moderate group (P < 0.001). Model C showed the highest AUC in both sets: training 0.947 and test 0.895, indicating superior predictive performance.

Conclusions: Combining radiomics features, EAT CT values, UA, and CRP in a predictive model accurately predicts EAT abnormalities in psoriasis, potentially improving cardiovascular comorbidity diagnosis.

Clinical trial number: Not applicable.