- 期刊
- OpenAccess
Sonographic Texture Characteristics of Autoimmune Sialadenitis-A Case Control Study
摘要
Background: Autoimmune sialadenitis (AS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by lymphocytic infiltration into the salivary glands. Up to date, there is no study discussing the objective ultrasound (US) characteristics for AS. The aim of this study is to elucidate the potential of texture analysis to diagnose AS. Methods: Eighteen patients diagnosed with AS and another group of 39 healthy volunteers were recruited for comparisons. We compare first and second-order US texture characteristics with Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) between these 2 groups. Results: We find the size is not different both in parotid and submandibular glands. In stiffness analysis, the AS group is harder than healthy group in parotid (24.09 ± 15.09 versus 15.89 ± 11.09 kPa, p = 0.03) and submandibular glands (22.04 ± 17.34 versus 17.25 ± 5.46 kPa, p = 0.03). We also found significant differences in first and second-order US texture characteristics (p ＜ 0.001). Conclusions: We demonstrate the feasibility of using objective US texture characteristics to assess major salivary glands in patients with AS. Objective, noninvasive US assessments with gray-level intensity and GLCM could provide a valuable tool for AS diagnosis.