Diagnostic Performance of MRI Radiomics for Classification of Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Normal Subjects: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease. Early diagnosis of AD and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), is crucial for timely intervention and management. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics showed a promising result for diagnosing and classifying AD, and MCI from normal subjects. Thus, we aimed to systematically evaluate the diagnostic performance of the MRI radiomics for this task. Methods and materials A comprehensive search of the current literature was conducted using relevant keywords in PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from inception to October 17, 2022. Original studies discussing the diagnostic performance of MRI Radiomics for the classification of AD, MCI, and normal subjects were included. Method quality was evaluated with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2), and the Radiomic Quality Score tool (RQS). Results We identified 10 studies that met the inclusion criteria, involving a total of 3446 participants. The overall quality of the included studies was moderate to high. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRI radiomics for differentiating AD from normal subjects were 0.8822 (95% CI 0.7888-0.9376), and 0.8849 (95% CI 0.7978-0.9374), respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRI radiomics for differentiating MCI from normal subjects were 0.7882 (95% CI 0.6272-0.8917) and 0.7736 (95% CI 0.6480-0.8639), respectively. Also, the pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRI radiomics for differentiating AD from MCI were 0.6938 (95% CI 0.6465-0.7374) and 0.8173 (95% CI 0.6117-0.9270), respectively. Conclusion MRI radiomics has promising diagnostic performance in differentiating AD, MCI, and normal subjects. It can potentially serve as a non-invasive and reliable tool for early diagnosis and classification of AD and MCI.