In this study, the authors extended the ComBat approach to provide a harmonization procedure that is applicable to any radiomic feature. They achieve this by combining image standardization with ComBat realignment, thus demonstrating that this could efficiently remove the scanner/protocol effect while preserving the individual variations in phantom, brain, and prostate MR scans.
Key points
- Radiomic feature values obtained using different MR scanners or imaging protocols can be harmonized by combining off-the-shelf image standardization and feature realignment procedures.
- Harmonized radiomic features enable one to pool data from different scanners and centers without a substantial loss of statistical power caused by intra- and inter-center variability.
- The proposed realignment method is applicable to radiomic features from different MR sequences and tumor types and does not rely on any phantom acquisition.
Article: How can we combat multicenter variability in MR radiomics? Validation of a correction procedure
Authors: Fanny Orlhac, Augustin Lecler, Julien Savatovski, Jessica Goya-Outi, Christophe Nioche, Frédérique Charbonneau, Nicholas Ayache, Frédérique Frouin, Loïc Duron & Irène Buvat