Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40489053›Full record

SynthesisJournal of ultrasound2025

Radiomics-based machine learning atherosclerotic carotid artery disease in ultrasound: systematic review with meta-analysis of RQS.

Sebastiano Vacca, Roberta Scicolone, Francesco Pisu, Riccardo Cau, Qi Yang, Andrea Annoni, Gianluca Pontone, Francesco Costa, Kosmas I Paraskevas, Andrew Nicolaides and 2 more

Abstract readSystematic ReviewMeta-Analysis
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of ultrasound, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Sebastiano VaccaSchool of Medicine and Surgery, University of Cagliari, 09042, Cagliari, Italy.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2566-3594
Roberta ScicoloneDepartment of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato, 09042, Cagliari, Italy.
Francesco PisuAOU Cagliari, 09042, Cagliari, Italy.
Riccardo CauDepartment of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato, 09042, Cagliari, Italy.
Qi YangDepartment of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Andrea AnnoniCentro Cardiologico Monzino IRCCS, 20138, Milan, Italy.
Gianluca PontoneCentro Cardiologico Monzino IRCCS, 20138, Milan, Italy.
Francesco CostaDepartment of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Imaging, University of Messina, A.O.U. Policlinic 'G. Martino', Via C. Valeria 1, 98165, Messina, Italy.
Kosmas I ParaskevasDepartment of Vascular Surgery, Red Cross Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Andrew NicolaidesVascular Screening and Diagnostic Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Jasjit S SuriStroke Monitoring and Diagnostic Division, AtheroPoint™, Roseville, CA, USA.
Luca SabaDepartment of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato, 09042, Cagliari, Italy. lucasaba@tiscali.it.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundStroke, a leading global cause of mortality and neurological disability, is often associated with atherosclerotic carotid artery disease. Distinguishing between symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid artery disease is crucial for appropriate treatment decisions. Radiomics, a quantitative image analysis technique, and machine learning (ML) have emerged as promising tools in Ultrasound (US) imaging, potentially providing a helpful tool in the screening of such lesions.

methodsPubmed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were searched for relevant studies published from January 2005 to May 2023. The Radiomics Quality Score (RQS) was used to assess methodological quality of studies included in the review. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) assessed the risk of bias. Sensitivity, specificity, and logarithmic diagnostic odds ratio (logDOR) meta-analyses have been conducted, alongside an influence analysis.

resultsRQS assessed methodological quality, revealing an overall low score and consistent findings with other radiology domains. QUADAS-2 indicated an overall low risk, except for two studies with high bias. The meta-analysis demonstrated that radiomics-based ML models for predicting culprit plaques on US had a satisfactory performance, with a sensitivity of 0.84 and specificity of 0.82. The logDOR analysis confirmed the positive results, yielding a pooled logDOR of 3.54. The summary ROC curve provided an AUC of 0.887.

conclusionRadiomics combined with ML provide high sensitivity and low false positive rate for carotid plaque vulnerability assessment on US. However, current evidence is not definitive, given the low overall study quality and high inter-study heterogeneity. High quality, prospective studies are needed to confirm the potential of these promising techniques.

Indexed as

Carotid Artery DiseasesMachine LearningCarotid ArteriesHumansRadiomicsSensitivity and SpecificityUltrasonographyArtificial IntelligenceCarotidRadiomicsStroke

Identifiers

PMID40489053
PMCPMC12496308

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.