Machine Learning and Multiparametric Brain MRI to Differentiate Hereditary Diffuse Leukodystrophy with Spheroids from Multiple Sclerosis

• BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS) and multiple sclerosis (MS) are demyelinating and neurodegenerative disorders that can be hard to distinguish clinically and radiologically. HDLS is a rare disorder compared to MS, which has led to occurrent misdiagnosis of HDLS as MS. That is problematic since their prognosis and treatment differ. Both disorders are investigated by MRI, which could help to identify patients with high probability of having HDLS, which could guide targeted genetic testing to confirm the HDLS diagnosis. METHODS: Here, we present a machine learning method based on quantitative MRI that can achieve a robust classification of HDLS versus MS. Four HDLS and 14 age-matched MS patients underwent a quantitative brain MRI protocol (synthetic MRI) at 3 Tesla (T) (scan time '7 minutes). We also performed a repeatability analysis of the predicting features to assess their generalizability by scanning a healthy control with five scan-rescans at 3T and 1.5T. RESULTS: Our predicting features were measured with an average confidence interval of 1.7% (P =.01), at 3T and 2.3% (P =.01) at 1.5T. The model gave a 100% correct classification of the cross-validation data when using 5-11 predicting features. When the maximum measurement noise was inserted in the model, the true positive rate of HDLS was 97.2%, while the true positive rate of MS was 99.6%. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that computer-assistance in combination with quantitative MRI may be helpful in aiding the challenging differential diagnosis of HDLS versus MS. 

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Neurologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Neurology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Differential diagnosis

hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids

multiple sclerosis

quantitative MRI

adult

Article

clinical article

controlled study

cross validation

feature selection

female

genetic screening

hereditary diffuse leukodystrophy

human

leave one out cross validation

leukodystrophy

machine learning

male

middle aged

noise

nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

prospective study

quantitative analysis

volumetry

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)