Yasin Celal GÜNEŞ, Semra DURAN, Karabekir ERCAN, Ebru ÖZTÜRK, Pınar İlhan DEMİR, Gülsüm Kübra BAHADIR, Özge Başaran AYDOĞDU
Annals of Clinical and Analytical Medicine - 2026;17(8):793-798
Aim: To identify radiomics parameters that distinguish spinal meningiomas from schwannomas and evaluate machine learning models using MRI data. Methods: Patients with histopathologic diagnoses of spinal meningioma ( n = 25) and schwannoma ( n = 26) who underwent pre-surgical MRI were enrolled. Semantic features, including tumor location, longest diameter, foraminal extension, cystic changes, spinal cord compression, enhancement patterns, dural tail, and ginkgo leaf signs, were assessed using a single 3.0 T scanner. Radiomics features were extracted from T1-weighted, T2-weighted, STIR, and post-gadolinium T1-weighted images. Support Vector Machine (SVM) models were trained and validated using conventional MRI, radiomics features, and their combination. Results: A significant gender difference was found, with more females in the meningioma group (84%, P = .039). Other significant factors included the longest tumor dimension ( P = .03), presence of a dural tail sign ( P < .001), intratumoral cystic changes ( P = .003), ginkgo leaf sign (P = .01), and spinal cord compression ( P < .001). Of the 444 extracted radiomics parameters, 186 demonstrated good reproducibility (ICC >= 0.75). Among these, 49 were retained for model construction. Model 1 (conventional MRI) achieved an AUC of 0.902, an accuracy of 0.882, a sensitivity of 0.884, and a specificity of 0.880. Model 2 (radiomics features) achieved an AUC of 0.909, an accuracy of 0.843, a sensitivity of 0.961, and a specificity of 0.720. Model 3 (combined features) demonstrated the highest performance with an AUC of 0.997, accuracy of 0.960, sensitivity of 1.000, and specificity of 0.920. Conclusion: Combining radiomics with conventional MRI improves diagnostic accuracy in differentiating spinal meningiomas from schwannomas, supporting radiomics as a valuable non-invasive tool for preoperative diagnosis. Multicenter studies are needed to validate these findings and expand clinical applications.
