Comparison of three freeware software packages for
18F-FDG PET texture feature calculation.
Jpn J Radiol 2021;
39:710-719. [PMID:
33595789 DOI:
10.1007/s11604-021-01100-0]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE
To compare texture feature estimates obtained from 18F-FDG-PET images using three different software packages.
METHODS
PET images from 15 patients with head and neck cancer were processed with three different freeware software: CGITA, LIFEx, and Metavol. For each lesion, 38 texture features were extracted from each software package. To evaluate the statistical agreement among the features across packages a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used. Differences in the features between each couple of software were assessed using a subsequent Dunn test. Correlation between texture features was evaluated via the Spearman coefficient.
RESULTS
Twenty-three of 38 features showed a significant agreement across the three software (P < 0.05). The agreement was better between LIFEx vs. Metavol (36 of 38) and worse between CGITA and Metavol (24 of 38), and CGITA vs. LIFEx (23 of 38). All features resulted correlated (ρ > = 0.70, P < 0.001) in comparing LIFEx vs. Metavol. Seven of 38 features were found not in agreement and slightly or not correlated (ρ < 0.70, P < 0.001) in comparing CGITA vs. LIFEx, and CGITA vs. Metavol.
CONCLUSION
Some texture discrepancies across software packages exist. Our findings reinforce the need to continue the standardization process, and to succeed in building a reference dataset to be used for comparisons.
Collapse