A RETROSPECTIVE study found that segmentation-derived abscess volume, sphericity, and compactness provide complementary prognostic information beyond conventional diameter measurement for assessing neck infection severity.
Researchers recruited 227 patients who had an acute neck infection diagnosed by an otorhinolaryngologist or oral and maxillofacial surgeon.
All MRI examinations used a 3-T Philips Ingenia scanner with a head-neck-spine coil and volume, and sphericity were extracted using PyRadiomics following Image Biomarker Standardisation Initiative (IBSI) recommendations.
Clinical data were extracted from electronic medical records by a researcher blinded to morphometric results, including demographics, laboratory values at and white blood cell count.
Three morphometric features were extracted: volume, sphericity, and compactness; their associations with intensive care unit (ICU) admission and a prolonged hospital stay were evaluated using multivariable models.
Researchers did not analyse image-intensity or voxel-distribution features, they assessed two outcome measures: ICU admissions and prolonged length of hospital stay.
Researchers found that abscess volume was higher in patients admitted to ICU (median abscess volume was 6.4 mL in patients admitted to ICU, with 2.7 mL in patients who were not admitted).
Sphericity was lower in patients admitted to ICU (median sphericity was 0.353 in ICU patients, with 0.452 in non-ICU patients). Maximum diameter was also higher in ICU patients.
Volume was higher in patients with prolonged hospital stays and sphericity was lower in patients with prolonged hospital stays.
Researchers compared multivariable models using conventional manual diameter with models in which diameter was replaced by segmentation-derived volume. The volume-based model had a higher area under the curve compared to the diameter-based model.
The researchers concluded that 3D measurements may improve the assessment of neck abscess severity. Further studies in external cohorts, together with external validation of the model, could improve the generalisability of the study’s finding.
Reference
Viertonen V et al. Segmentation-based morphometric analysis of neck abscesses on MRI: associations with disease severity. Eur Radiol.2026. DOI:10.1007/s00330-026-12954-1.
Featured Image: Melena-Nsk on Adobe Stock
Each article is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License.
