A Clinically Anchored Radiomics Dictionary for Explainable TI-RADS-Based Thyroid Nodule Classification in Ultrasound; Dictionary Version TU1.0

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Auteurs principaux: Salmanpour, Mohammad, Taeb, Shahram, Jouzdani, Ali Fathi, Ayazi, Mohammad, Saffarian, Siavash Hosseinpour, Maghsudi, Mehdi, Hacihaliloglu, Ilker, Rahmim, Arman
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Publié: 2026
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author Salmanpour, Mohammad
Taeb, Shahram
Jouzdani, Ali Fathi
Ayazi, Mohammad
Saffarian, Siavash Hosseinpour
Maghsudi, Mehdi
Hacihaliloglu, Ilker
Rahmim, Arman
author_facet Salmanpour, Mohammad
Taeb, Shahram
Jouzdani, Ali Fathi
Ayazi, Mohammad
Saffarian, Siavash Hosseinpour
Maghsudi, Mehdi
Hacihaliloglu, Ilker
Rahmim, Arman
contents Artificial intelligence based radiomics models for thyroid ultrasound (US) often achieve strong diagnostic performance but remain difficult to interpret, limiting clinical trust and adoption. We developed and validated an interpretable radiomic feature (RF) framework for thyroid nodule classification by linking quantitative US features to the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) semantic lexicon through a clinically grounded radiomics dictionary. The dictionary mapped TI-RADS categories, including composition, echogenicity, shape, margin, and echogenic foci, to Image Biomarker Standardization Initiative compliant RFs extracted from two-dimensional US images. Relationships were defined through expert consensus and examined using Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP). Three multicenter datasets were combined, yielding 5,542 nodules. A total of 107 RFs were extracted using PyRadiomics and normalized with min-max scaling. For benign versus malignant classification, 27 feature selection methods were paired with 25 classifiers and evaluated using stratified five-fold cross-validation on 70% of the data, followed by testing on the remaining 30%. Robust model selection used a stability-aware composite score combining mean performance and variability across balanced accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC. The proposed dictionary enabled direct interpretation of radiomic signatures in TI-RADS terms. The best model, Select-From-Model based on logistic regression with Extra-Trees, achieved a test ROC-AUC of 0.941 +/- 0.005. SHAP analysis showed that texture heterogeneity was the dominant malignancy signal, with gray level run length matrix non-uniformity, intensity dispersion, and kurtosis aligning with high-risk TI-RADS descriptors. These findings support transparent and clinically meaningful thyroid nodule risk stratification from US.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_22692
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Clinically Anchored Radiomics Dictionary for Explainable TI-RADS-Based Thyroid Nodule Classification in Ultrasound; Dictionary Version TU1.0
Salmanpour, Mohammad
Taeb, Shahram
Jouzdani, Ali Fathi
Ayazi, Mohammad
Saffarian, Siavash Hosseinpour
Maghsudi, Mehdi
Hacihaliloglu, Ilker
Rahmim, Arman
Medical Physics
F.2.2; I.2.7
Artificial intelligence based radiomics models for thyroid ultrasound (US) often achieve strong diagnostic performance but remain difficult to interpret, limiting clinical trust and adoption. We developed and validated an interpretable radiomic feature (RF) framework for thyroid nodule classification by linking quantitative US features to the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) semantic lexicon through a clinically grounded radiomics dictionary. The dictionary mapped TI-RADS categories, including composition, echogenicity, shape, margin, and echogenic foci, to Image Biomarker Standardization Initiative compliant RFs extracted from two-dimensional US images. Relationships were defined through expert consensus and examined using Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP). Three multicenter datasets were combined, yielding 5,542 nodules. A total of 107 RFs were extracted using PyRadiomics and normalized with min-max scaling. For benign versus malignant classification, 27 feature selection methods were paired with 25 classifiers and evaluated using stratified five-fold cross-validation on 70% of the data, followed by testing on the remaining 30%. Robust model selection used a stability-aware composite score combining mean performance and variability across balanced accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC. The proposed dictionary enabled direct interpretation of radiomic signatures in TI-RADS terms. The best model, Select-From-Model based on logistic regression with Extra-Trees, achieved a test ROC-AUC of 0.941 +/- 0.005. SHAP analysis showed that texture heterogeneity was the dominant malignancy signal, with gray level run length matrix non-uniformity, intensity dispersion, and kurtosis aligning with high-risk TI-RADS descriptors. These findings support transparent and clinically meaningful thyroid nodule risk stratification from US.
title A Clinically Anchored Radiomics Dictionary for Explainable TI-RADS-Based Thyroid Nodule Classification in Ultrasound; Dictionary Version TU1.0
topic Medical Physics
F.2.2; I.2.7
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22692