Radiomics-based differentiation of lung disease models generated by polluted air based on X-ray computed tomography data

BACKGROUND: Lung diseases (resulting from air pollution) require a widely accessible method for risk estimation and early diagnosis to ensure proper and responsive treatment. Radiomics-based fractal dimension analysis of X-ray computed tomography attenuation patterns in chest voxels of mice exposed to different air polluting agents was performed to model early stages of disease and establish differential diagnosis. METHODS: To model different types of air pollution, BALBc/ByJ mouse groups were exposed to cigarette smoke combined with ozone, sulphur dioxide gas and a control group was established. Two weeks after exposure, the frequency distributions of image voxel attenuation data were evaluated. Specific cut-off ranges were defined to group voxels by attenuation. Cut-off ranges were binarized and their spatial pattern was associated with calculated fractal dimension, then abstracted by the fractal dimension -- cut-off range mathematical function. Nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis (KW) and Mann-Whitney post hoc (MWph) tests were used. RESULTS: Each cut-off range versus fractal dimension function plot was found to contain two distinctive Gaussian curves. The ratios of the Gaussian curve parameters are considerably significant and are statistically distinguishable within the three exposure groups. CONCLUSIONS: A new radiomics evaluation method was established based on analysis of the fractal dimension of chest X-ray computed tomography data segments. The specific attenuation patterns calculated utilizing our method may diagnose and monitor certain lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, tuberculosis or lung carcinomas

Progradation of the paleo-Danube shelf margin across the Pannonian Basin during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene

The basin of giant Lake Pannon in Central Europe was filled by forward accretion of sediment packages during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene. Successive positions of the shelf-margin are represented by a series of clinoforms in seismic profiles. The height of the clinoforms (and thus the inferred paleo water depth) is 200–600 m in the successions; the width of the slope, measured from the shelf-break down to the toe of slope, varies between 5 and 15 km. Geographical position of successive shelf-margin slopes indicates that about 2/3 of the basin area was filled by sediment transport systems supplying sediments from the NW, from the Alps and Western Carpathians. The first shelf-margin slope was built by the paleo-Danube in the Kisalföld/Danube sub-basin about 10 Ma ago, and during the subsequent 6 Ma it prograded ca. 400 km to the SE across the Pannonian Basin, with an average of 67 km/Ma slope advance. The most significant agent of this shelf growth was the sediment dispersal system of the paleo-Danube, hence we designate this northwestern shelf the paleo-Danube shelf. The northeastern part of Lake Pannon was filled by the paleo-Tisza system, supplying sediments from the Northeastern and Eastern Carpathians. Additional local systems carried sediments from E to W along the eastern margin and S to N along the southern margin of the Pannonian Basin, respectively. The deep-water environment disappeared from the Pannonian Basin and the endemic, brackish biota of Lake Pannon went extinct probably 4 Ma ago, when the paleo-Danube shelf margin and a (yet unidentified) shelf margin prograding in the opposite direction met in the southeastern corner of the Pannonian Basin

Additional file 1: of Radiomics-based differentiation of lung disease models generated by polluted air based on X-ray computed tomography data

Lists of the numerical features of the Gaussian curves for every mouse. (DOC 36 kb