Texture analysis based on ADC maps and T2-FLAIR images for the assessment of the severity and prognosis of ischaemic stroke.

Objectives: To explore the feasibility of texture analysis based on T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (T2-FLAIR) images and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in the assessment of the severity and prognosis of ischaemic stroke using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and modified Rankin scale (mRS) scores, respectively.

Methods: Overall, 116 patients diagnosed with subacute ischaemic stroke were included in this retrospective study. Based on T2-FLAIR images and ADC maps, 15 texture features were extracted from the ROIs of each patient using grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and local binary pattern histogram Fourier (LBP-HF) methods. The correlations of NIHSS score on admission (NIHSS), NIHSS score 24 h after stroke onset (NIHSS) and mRS score with the texture features were evaluated using Spearman's partial correlations. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare the performance of the selected texture features in the evaluation of stroke severity and prognosis.

Results: Texture features derived from the T2-FLAIR images and ADC maps were correlated with NIHSS score and mRS score. Entropy and 0.75Quantile showed the best diagnostic performance for assessing stroke severity. The combination of Entropy and 0.75Quantile achieved a better performance in the evaluation of stroke severity (AUC = 0.7, p = 0.01) than either feature alone. Only 0.05Quantile was found to be correlated with mRS score, and none of the texture features were predictive of mRS score.

Conclusion: Texture features derived from T2-FLAIR images and ADC maps might serve as biomarkers to evaluate stroke severity, but were insufficient to predict stroke prognosis.