The impact of the variation of imaging parameters on the robustness of Computed Tomography radiomic features: A review

Abstract

The field of radiomics is at the forefront of personalized medicine. However, there is concern that high variation in imaging parameters will impact robustness of radiomic features and subsequently the performance of the predictive models built upon them. Therefore, our review aims to evaluate the impact of imaging parameters on the robustness of radiomic features. We also provide insights into the validity and discrepancy of different methodologies applied to investigate the robustness of radiomic features. We selected 47 papers based on our predefined inclusion criteria and grouped these papers by the imaging parameter under investigation: (i) scanner parameters, (ii) acquisition parameters and (iii) reconstruction parameters. Our review highlighted that most of the imaging parameters are disruptive parameters, and shape along with First order statistics were reported as the most robust radiomic features against variation in imaging parameters. This review identified inconsistencies related to the methodology of the reviewed studies such as the metrics used for robustness, the feature extraction techniques, the reporting style, and their outcome inclusion. We hope this review will aid the scientific community in conducting research in a way that is more reproducible and avoids the pitfalls of previous analyses.

Keywords: CT Scan; Imaging Parameters; Radiomics; Reproducibility; Robustness.