Evaluation of fat fraction and morphologic characteristics of mandibular condyles in patients with temporomandibular disorders using Q-Dixon.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the fat fraction (FF) and morphologic characteristics of the mandibular condyles in patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) using quantitative Dixon (Q-Dixon).

METHODS

The bilateral condyles of 109 TMDs patients and 25 healthy volunteers were prospectively enrolled. Histogram metrics and shape-based radiomics features were calculated to describe the FF and morphologic characteristics of the condyles, respectively. The FF and morphologic characteristics between health control (HC) and TMDs groups, and among TMDs subgroups were compared. The diagnostic ability of FF and morphologic characteristics were revealed.

RESULTS

Between HC and TMDs groups, 10 percentile, 90 percentile, mean, median, root mean squared, and skewness showed significant differences (all P < 0.05). The surface volume ratio differs between the two groups. Except for major axis length, all of the FF and morphologic characteristics showed significant differences among TMDs subgroups (all P < 0.05). The FF and morphologic characteristics of condyles showed good diagnostic performance in distinguishing HC from TMDs (area under the receiver operating curve [ROC-AUC]: 0.705 ∼ 0.835 and precision‑recall curve [PR-AUC]: 0.920 ∼ 0.958) group and differentiating subtypes of TMDs (ROC-AUC: 0.761 ∼ 0.837; PR-AUC: 0. 823 ∼ 0.916).

CONCLUSIONS

The histogram metrics of FF and shape-based radiomics features derived from the Q-Dixon were capable of detecting and quantifying the pathologic changes of the condyles in TMDs patients, providing novel and promising MRI biomarkers for clinical applications.