Cross species reproducibility of MRI radiomics features enables intervertebral disc degeneration assessment in experimental monkeys

Experimental monkeys serve as a bridge between basic research and clinical medicine. Accurately assessing the degree of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) in experimental monkeys is crucial for further intervertebral disc related research in these animals. Radiomics promises significant enhancement in quantitative diagnostic precision for IVDD, while the cornerstone of constructing robust and efficient radiomics models (RMs) relies on access to large-scale sample data. In experimental monkey research, however, ethical restrictions and resource constraints typically limit sample sizes. This study addresses this challenge by comparing and analyzing the generalizability of intervertebral disc MRI-based radiomics models between humans and experimental monkeys. The findings reveal that 12.30% (438/3562) of the radiomics features demonstrate high reproducibility between the two species. Leveraging the sufficient human dataset, we built RMs and employed the experimental monkey dataset as a training set to validate the cross-species generalizability of these models. Notably, in the test phase, models constructed based on the inter-species reproducible features achieved AUC values ranging from 0.82 to 0.92, indicative of promising diagnostic performance. This study emphasizes the advantages of leveraging human data for the construction of RMs under conditions of constrained experimental monkey research. We innovatively propose and validate the potential for cross-species application of RMs. This study furnishes strong theoretical underpinnings and practical foundations for the broader application of radiomics in cross-species disease research.