Radiomics feature similarity: A novel approach for characterizing brain network changes in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Introduction: Network modeling is increasingly used to study brain alterations in neurological disorders. In this study, we apply a novel modeling approach based on the similarity of regional radiomics feature to characterize gray matter network changes in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) using MRI data. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we assessed structural 3 T MRI data from twenty patients with bvFTD and 20 cognitively normal controls. Radiomics features were extracted from T1-weighted MRI based on cortical and subcortical brain segmentation. Similarity in radiomics features between brain regions was used to construct intra-individual structural gray matter networks. Regional mean connectivity strength (RMCS) and region-to-region radiomics similarity were compared between bvFTD patients and controls. Finally, associations between network measures, clinical data, and biological features were explored in bvFTD patients. Results: Relative to controls, patients with bvFTD showed higher RMCS values in the superior frontal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus and right inferior parietal gyrus (FDR-corrected p < 0.05). Patients with bvFTD also showed several edges of increased radiomics similarity in key components of the frontal, temporal, parietal and thalamic pathways compared to controls (FDR-corrected p < 0.05). Network measures in frontotemporal circuits were associated with Mini-Mental State Examination scores and cerebrospinal fluid total-tau protein levels (Spearman r > |0.7|, p < 0.005). Conclusions: Our study provides new insights into frontotemporal network changes associated with bvFTD, highlighting specific associations between network measures and clinical/biological features. Radiomics feature similarity analysis could represent a useful approach for characterizing brain changes in patients with frontotemporal dementia.