The fractal and textural analysis of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients

Elena Jordanova; Radmila Jankovic; Radomir Naumovic; Dejan Celic; Bojana Ljubicic; Sanja Simic-Ogrizovic; Gordana Basta-Jovanovic

doi:10.1016/j.jpi.2022.100108

The fractal and textural analysis of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients

J Pathol Inform. 2022 Jun 22:13:100108. doi: 10.1016/j.jpi.2022.100108. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Elena Jordanova¹, Radmila Jankovic², Radomir Naumovic^{3

4}, Dejan Celic^{5

6}, Bojana Ljubicic⁵, Sanja Simic-Ogrizovic⁷, Gordana Basta-Jovanovic²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephrology, Clinic for Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital Center Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia.
² Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
³ Clinic of Nephrology, Clinical Hospital Center Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁵ Clinic of Nephrology and Clinical Immunology, Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
⁷ Medigroup Hospital, New Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.

Abstract

Background Fractal dimension is an indirect indicator of signal complexity. The aim was to evaluate the fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients with glomerular diseases and association of these parameters with clinical features. Methods The study included 125 patients mean age 46 ± 15.2 years: obese (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m²-63 patients) and non-obese (BMI < 27 kg/m²-62 patients). Serum concentration of creatinine, protein, albumin, cholesterol, trygliceride, and daily proteinuria were measured. Formula Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Colaboration (CKD-EPI) equation was calculated. Fractal (fractal dimension, lacunarity) and textural (angular second moment (ASM), textural correlation (COR), inverse difference moment (IDM), textural contrast (CON), variance) analysis parameters were compared between two groups. Results Obese patients had higher mean value of variance (t = 1.867), ASM (t = 1.532) and CON (t = 0.394) but without significant difference (P > 0.05) compared to non-obese. Mean value of COR (t = 0.108) and IDM (t = 0.185) were almost the same in two patient groups. Obese patients had higher value of lacunarity (t = 0.499) in comparison with non-obese, the mean value of fractal dimension (t = 0.225) was almost the same in two groups. Significantly positive association between variance and creatinine concentration (r = 0.499, P < 0.01), significantly negative association between variance and CKD-EPI (r = -0.448, P < 0.01), variance and sex (r = -0.339, P < 0.05) were found. Conclusions Variance showed significant correlation with serum creatinine concentration, CKD-EPI and sex. CON and IDM were significantly related to sex. Fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli could become a supplement to histopathologic analysis of kidney tissue.

Keywords: ASM, angular second moment; BMI, body mass index; CKD-EPI, Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Colaboration equation; CON, textural contrast; COR, textural correlation; FSGS, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis; Fractal analysis; GLCM, Grey Level Cooacurrence Matrix; Glomerulus; IDM, inverse difference moment; MCD, minimal change disease; MGN, membranous glomerulonephritis; MPGN, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis; ORG, obesity related glomerulopathy; Obesity; PAS, Periodic Acid- Schiff method; Textural analysis; eGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate.

Publication types

Review