Texture analysis using T1-weighted images for muscles in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease patients and volunteers
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Updated: Dec 3, 2025
Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Disease
Published on: December 18, 2016
Ji Hyun Lee1, Young Cheol Yoon2, Hyun Su Kim1
1Department of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Ilwon-Ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06351, South Korea.
Objectives:
To explore whether texture features using T1-weighted images correlate with fat fraction, and whether they differ between Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease patients and volunteers.
Methods:
The institutional review board approved this retrospective study, and the requirement for informed consent was waived; data of eighteen CMT patients and eighteen healthy volunteers from a previous study was used. Texture features of the muscles including mean, standard deviation (SD), skewness, kurtosis, and entropy of the signal intensity were derived from T1-weighted images. Spearman's correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between texture features and fat fraction measured by 3D multiple gradient echo Dixon-based sequence. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the texture features between CMT patients and volunteers. Intraobserver and interobserver agreements for the texture features were assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient.
Results:
The SD (ρ = 0.256, p < 0.001) and entropy (ρ = 0.263, p < 0.001) were significantly and positively correlated with fat fraction; skewness (ρ = - 0.110, p = 0.027) and kurtosis (ρ = - 0.149, p = 0.003) were significantly and inversely correlated with fat fraction. The CMT patients showed a significantly higher SD (63.45 vs. 49.26; p < 0.001), skewness (1.06 vs. 0.56; p < 0.001), kurtosis (4.00 vs. 1.81; p < 0.001), and entropy (3.20 vs. 3.02; p < 0.001) than did the volunteers. Intraobserver and interobserver agreements were almost perfect for mean, SD, and entropy.
Conclusions:
Texture features using T1-weighted images correlated with fat fraction and differed between CMT patients and volunteers.
Key Points:
• Standard deviation and entropy of muscles derived from T1-weighted images were significantly and positively correlated with the muscle fat fraction. • Mean, standard deviation, and entropy were considered highly reliable in muscle analyses. • Texture features may have the potential to diagnose early stage of intramuscular fatty infiltration.
