Evaluation of the Statistical Detection of Change Algorithm for Screening Patients with MS with New Lesion Activity on Longitudinal Brain MRI

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Identification of new MS lesions on longitudinal MR imaging by human readers is time-consuming and prone to error. Our objective was to evaluate the improvement in the performance of subject-level detection by readers when assisted by the automated statistical detection of change algorithm.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 patients with MS with a mean interscan interval of 13.2 (SD, 2.4) months were included. Statistical detection of change was applied to the baseline and follow-up FLAIR images to detect potential new lesions for confirmation by readers (Reader + statistical detection of change method). This method was compared with readers operating in the clinical workflow (Reader method) for a subject-level detection of new lesions.

RESULTS: Reader + statistical detection of change found 30 subjects (15.0%) with at least 1 new lesion, while Reader detected 16 subjects (8.0%). As a subject-level screening tool, statistical detection of change achieved a perfect sensitivity of 1.00 (95% CI, 0.88–1.00) and a moderate specificity of 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59–0.74). The agreement on a subject level was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.87–0.95) between Reader + statistical detection of change and Reader, and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.66–0.78) between Reader + statistical detection of change and statistical detection of change.

CONCLUSIONS: The statistical detection of change algorithm can serve as a time-saving screening tool to assist human readers in verifying 3D FLAIR images of patients with MS with suspected new lesions. Our promising results warrant further evaluation of statistical detection of change in prospective multireader clinical studies.