scholarly journals Automated analysis and detection of abnormalities in transaxial anatomical cardiovascular magnetic resonance images: a proof of concept study with potential to optimize image acquisition

Author(s):  
James P. Howard ◽  
Sameer Zaman ◽  
Aaraby Ragavan ◽  
Kerry Hall ◽  
Greg Leonard ◽  
...  

Abstract The large number of available MRI sequences means patients cannot realistically undergo them all, so the range of sequences to be acquired during a scan are protocolled based on clinical details. Adapting this to unexpected findings identified early on in the scan requires experience and vigilance. We investigated whether deep learning of the images acquired in the first few minutes of a scan could provide an automated early alert of abnormal features. Anatomy sequences from 375 CMR scans were used as a training set. From these, we annotated 1500 individual slices and used these to train a convolutional neural network to perform automatic segmentation of the cardiac chambers, great vessels and any pleural effusions. 200 scans were used as a testing set. The system then assembled a 3D model of the thorax from which it made clinical measurements to identify important abnormalities. The system was successful in segmenting the anatomy slices (Dice 0.910) and identified multiple features which may guide further image acquisition. Diagnostic accuracy was 90.5% and 85.5% for left and right ventricular dilatation, 85% for left ventricular hypertrophy and 94.4% for ascending aorta dilatation. The area under ROC curve for diagnosing pleural effusions was 0.91. We present proof-of-concept that a neural network can segment and derive accurate clinical measurements from a 3D model of the thorax made from transaxial anatomy images acquired in the first few minutes of a scan. This early information could lead to dynamic adaptive scanning protocols, and by focusing scanner time appropriately and prioritizing cases for supervision and early reporting, improve patient experience and efficiency.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Schuuring ◽  
Ivana Išgum ◽  
Bernard Cosyns ◽  
Steven A. J. Chamuleau ◽  
Berto J. Bouma

Introduction: Echocardiography is widely used because of its portability, high temporal resolution, absence of radiation, and due to the low-costs. Over the past years, echocardiography has been recommended by the European Society of Cardiology in most cardiac diseases for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. These recommendations have led to an increase in number of performed studies each requiring diligent processing and reviewing. The standard work pattern of image analysis including quantification and reporting has become highly resource intensive and time consuming. Existence of a large number of datasets with digital echocardiography images and recent advent of AI technology have created an environment in which artificial intelligence (AI) solutions can be developed successfully to automate current manual workflow.Methods and Results: We report on published AI solutions for echocardiography analysis on methods' performance, characteristics of the used data and imaged population. Contemporary AI applications are available for automation and advent in the image acquisition, analysis, reporting and education. AI solutions have been developed for both diagnostic and predictive tasks in echocardiography. Left ventricular function assessment and quantification have been most often performed. Performance of automated image view classification, image quality enhancement, cardiac function assessment, disease classification, and cardiac event prediction was overall good but most studies lack external evaluation.Conclusion: Contemporary AI solutions for image acquisition, analysis, reporting and education are developed for relevant tasks with promising performance. In the future major benefit of AI in echocardiography is expected from improvements in automated analysis and interpretation to reduce workload and improve clinical outcome. Some of the challenges have yet to be overcome, however, none of them are insurmountable.


Author(s):  
Liang Kim Meng ◽  
Azira Khalil ◽  
Muhamad Hanif Ahmad Nizar ◽  
Maryam Kamarun Nisham ◽  
Belinda Pingguan-Murphy ◽  
...  

Background: Bone Age Assessment (BAA) refers to a clinical procedure that aims to identify a discrepancy between biological and chronological age of an individual by assessing the bone age growth. Currently, there are two main methods of executing BAA which are known as Greulich-Pyle and Tanner-Whitehouse techniques. Both techniques involve a manual and qualitative assessment of hand and wrist radiographs, resulting in intra and inter-operator variability accuracy and time-consuming. An automatic segmentation can be applied to the radiographs, providing the physician with more accurate delineation of the carpal bone and accurate quantitative analysis. Methods: In this study, we proposed an image feature extraction technique based on image segmentation with the fully convolutional neural network with eight stride pixel (FCN-8). A total of 290 radiographic images including both female and the male subject of age ranging from 0 to 18 were manually segmented and trained using FCN-8. Results and Conclusion: The results exhibit a high training accuracy value of 99.68% and a loss rate of 0.008619 for 50 epochs of training. The experiments compared 58 images against the gold standard ground truth images. The accuracy of our fully automated segmentation technique is 0.78 ± 0.06, 1.56 ±0.30 mm and 98.02% in terms of Dice Coefficient, Hausdorff Distance, and overall qualitative carpal recognition accuracy, respectively.


Author(s):  
Daniel Overhoff ◽  
Peter Kohlmann ◽  
Alex Frydrychowicz ◽  
Sergios Gatidis ◽  
Christian Loewe ◽  
...  

Purpose The DRG-ÖRG IRP (Deutsche Röntgengesellschaft-Österreichische Röntgengesellschaft international radiomics platform) represents a web-/cloud-based radiomics platform based on a public-private partnership. It offers the possibility of data sharing, annotation, validation and certification in the field of artificial intelligence, radiomics analysis, and integrated diagnostics. In a first proof-of-concept study, automated myocardial segmentation and automated myocardial late gadolinum enhancement (LGE) detection using radiomic image features will be evaluated for myocarditis data sets. Materials and Methods The DRG-ÖRP IRP can be used to create quality-assured, structured image data in combination with clinical data and subsequent integrated data analysis and is characterized by the following performance criteria: Possibility of using multicentric networked data, automatically calculated quality parameters, processing of annotation tasks, contour recognition using conventional and artificial intelligence methods and the possibility of targeted integration of algorithms. In a first study, a neural network pre-trained using cardiac CINE data sets was evaluated for segmentation of PSIR data sets. In a second step, radiomic features were applied for segmental detection of LGE of the same data sets, which were provided multicenter via the IRP. Results First results show the advantages (data transparency, reliability, broad involvement of all members, continuous evolution as well as validation and certification) of this platform-based approach. In the proof-of-concept study, the neural network demonstrated a Dice coefficient of 0.813 compared to the expert's segmentation of the myocardium. In the segment-based myocardial LGE detection, the AUC was 0.73 and 0.79 after exclusion of segments with uncertain annotation.The evaluation and provision of the data takes place at the IRP, taking into account the FAT (fairness, accountability, transparency) and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) criteria. Conclusion It could be shown that the DRG-ÖRP IRP can be used as a crystallization point for the generation of further individual and joint projects. The execution of quantitative analyses with artificial intelligence methods is greatly facilitated by the platform approach of the DRG-ÖRP IRP, since pre-trained neural networks can be integrated and scientific groups can be networked.In a first proof-of-concept study on automated segmentation of the myocardium and automated myocardial LGE detection, these advantages were successfully applied.Our study shows that with the DRG-ÖRP IRP, strategic goals can be implemented in an interdisciplinary way, that concrete proof-of-concept examples can be demonstrated, and that a large number of individual and joint projects can be realized in a participatory way involving all groups. Key Points:  Citation Format


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