Single extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy for proximal ureter stones: Can CT texture analysis technique help...

To explore whether the computed tomography texture analysis (CTTA) technique can help predict the curative effects of a single extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) for proximal ureteral stones.

In all, 100 patients with proximal ureteral stone underwent non-enhanced multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) before ESWL. The patients were divided into success and failure groups. Success of ESWL was defined as the patients being stone-free or having residual stone fragments of ≤2 mm. Traditional characteristics, such as stone size, body mass index (BMI), and skin-to-stone distance (SSD), and CTTA metrics, such as the mean Hounsfield unit (HU) density, entropy, kurtosis, and skewness, were analyzed and compared between two groups by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to determine Youden index-based cutoff values.

Failure of stone removal was observed in 36 patients (36%). Stone height, stone cross-sectional diameter, largest cross-sectional area, stone volume, stone density (mean HU), and CTTA metrics (kurtosis and entropy) were the significant independent predictors of ESWL success on univariate analysis (p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis, mean HU, skewness, and kurtosis were shown to be significant predictors of ESWL success (p < 0.05). In subgroup analysis based on the cutoff value of mean stone density (HU = 857), the only significant independent factor associated with both subgroups was kurtosis (p < 0.05).

As a quantitative analysis method, CTTA may be helpful in selecting appropriate ESWL patients. High kurtosis and low mean HU values simultaneously indicate a relatively higher ESWL success rate.