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Radiomics studies, using features extracted from medical images, are often used for outcome prediction in oncology. Studies frequently use physical phantoms to assess radiomic feature reliability, however, few studies have utilized computer-generated phantoms to assess the impact of image acquisition parameters. Additionally, studies have introduced deep learning approaches to generate CT-realistic textures on computer-generated phantoms. Therefore, we aimed to assess the feasibility of using 4D extended cardiac-torso (XCAT) phantoms with generated realistic textures using a deep learning network adapted from a previous study to analyze the impact of slice thickness on radiomic features. Our dataset consisted of 70 organ maps (training: n=50, validation: n=20) generated from CT images of lung cancer patients. These were used as input for a dual-discriminator conditional-generative adversarial network to synthesize realistic textures in the organ maps. The validated network was used to generate realistic-textured XCAT phantoms. The phantoms were reconstructed using three different slice thicknesses. Pyradiomics was used to extract radiomics features from the tumor of each XCAT phantom. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to assess the feature reliability for each acquisition protocol. Qualitatively, the generated XCAT phantoms had similar textures to that of the real CT images. The features demonstrated excellent reliability between each acquisition protocol for most feature types with GLCM texture features only showing moderate reliability, however, this may be due to the small sample size of the study. This study showed the feasibility of using generated realistic-textured XCAT phantoms to study the impact of acquisition protocols on radiomic features.
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