Enhanced Vertebral Segmentation and Cobb angle Calculation using Advanced Instance Segmentation Techniques

Abstract

Scoliosis, a spinal deformity affecting children and adolescents, is quantified using the Cobb angle. Traditional manual measurement by clinicians is time-consuming and subject to variability. This study introduces an automated method using the YOLACT++ instance segmentation model to detect vertebrae and calculate the Cobb angle on the SpineWeb dataset. By identifying the most tilted vertebrae using principal component analysis, our approach achieves a Symmetric Mean Absolute Percentage Error (SMAPE) of 8.11%, outperforming previous segmentation-based methods. This demonstrates improved accuracy and reliability, with potential for clinical decision support. The source code and other details are available at github link. https://github.com/inzamam-ulhaq-collab/Cobb-angle-measurement-code.gi