A machine learning-based sonomics for prediction of thyroid nodule malignancies

Objectives This study aims to use ultrasound derived features as biomarkers to assess the malignancy of thyroid nodules in patients who were candidates for FNA according to the ACR TI-RADS guidelines. Methods Two hundred and ten patients who met the selection criteria were enrolled in the study and subjected to ultrasound-guided FNA of thyroid nodules. Different radiomics features were extracted from sonographic images, including intensity, shape, and texture feature sets. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR), and Random Forests/Extreme Gradient Boosting Machine (XGBoost) algorithms were used for feature selection and classification of the univariate and multivariate modeling, respectively. Evaluation of models performed using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results In the univariate analysis, Gray Level Run Length Matrix - Run-Length Non-Uniformity (GLRLM-RLNU) and gray-level zone length matrix - Run-Length Non-Uniformity (GLZLM-GLNU) (both with an AUC of 0.67) were top-performing for predicting nodules malignancy. In the multivariate analysis of the training dataset, the AUC of all combinations of feature selection algorithms and classifiers was 0.99, and the highest sensitivity was for XGBoost classifier and MRMR feature selection algorithms (0.99). Finally, the test dataset was used to evaluate our model in which XGBoost classifier with MRMR and LASSO feature selection algorithms had the highest performance (AUC = 0.95). Conclusions Ultrasound-extracted features can be used as non-invasive biomarkers for thyroid nodules’ malignancy prediction. Key Points Ultrasound imaging features can be used for thyroid nodules’ malignancy prediction. The quantitative features of ultrasound images can be used as non-invasive biomarkers.