Multi-Scale Convolutional-Stack Aggregation for Robust White Matter Hyperintensities Segmentation

Segmentation of both large and small white matter hyperintensities/lesions in brain MR images is a challenging task which has drawn much attention in recent years. We propose a multi-scale aggregation model framework to deal with volume-varied lesions. Firstly, we present a specifically-designed network for small lesion segmentation called Stack-Net, in which multiple convolutional layers are connected, aiming to preserve rich local spatial information of small lesions before the sub-sampling layer. Secondly, we aggregate multi-scale Stack-Nets with different receptive fields to learn multi-scale contextual information of both large and small lesions. Our model is evaluated on recent MICCAI WMH Challenge Dataset and outperforms the state-of-the-art on lesion recall and lesion F1-score under 5-fold cross validation. In addition, we further test our pre-trained models on a Multiple Sclerosis lesion dataset with 30 subjects under cross-center evaluation. Results show that the aggregation model is effective in learning multi-scale spatial information.It claimed the first place on the hidden test set after independent evaluation by the challenge organizer. In addition, we further test our pre-trained models on a Multiple Sclerosis lesion dataset with 30 subjects under cross-center evaluation. Results show that the aggregation model is effective in learning multi-scale spatial information.Comment: accepted by MICCAI brain lesion worksho

GaNDLF: A Generally Nuanced Deep Learning Framework for Scalable End-to-End Clinical Workflows in Medical Imaging

Deep Learning (DL) has greatly highlighted the potential impact of optimized machine learning in both the scientific and clinical communities. The advent of open-source DL libraries from major industrial entities, such as TensorFlow (Google), PyTorch (Facebook), and MXNet (Apache), further contributes to DL promises on the democratization of computational analytics. However, increased technical and specialized background is required to develop DL algorithms, and the variability of implementation details hinders their reproducibility. Towards lowering the barrier and making the mechanism of DL development, training, and inference more stable, reproducible, and scalable, without requiring an extensive technical background, this manuscript proposes the Generally Nuanced Deep Learning Framework (GaNDLF). With built-in support for k-fold cross-validation, data augmentation, multiple modalities and output classes, and multi-GPU training, as well as the ability to work with both radiographic and histologic imaging, GaNDLF aims to provide an end-to-end solution for all DL-related tasks, to tackle problems in medical imaging and provide a robust application framework for deployment in clinical workflows

Automatic segmentation of the mandible from computed tomography scans for 3D virtual surgical planning using the convolutional neural network

Segmentation of mandibular bone in CT scans is crucial for 3D virtual surgical planning of craniofacial tumor resection and free flap reconstruction of the resection defect, in order to obtain a detailed surface representation of the bones. A major drawback of most existing mandibular segmentation methods is that they require a large amount of expert knowledge for manual or partially automatic segmentation. In fact, due to the lack of experienced doctors and experts, high quality expert knowledge is hard to achieve in practice. Furthermore, segmentation of mandibles in CT scans is influenced seriously by metal artifacts and large variations in their shape and size among individuals. In order to address these challenges we propose an automatic mandible segmentation approach in CT scans, which considers the continuum of anatomical structures through different planes. The approach adopts the architecture of the U-Net and then combines the resulting 2D segmentations from three orthogonal planes into a 3D segmentation. We implement such a segmentation approach on two head and neck datasets and then evaluate the performance. Experimental results show that our proposed approach for mandible segmentation in CT scans exhibits high accuracy

MSSEG-2 challenge proceedings: Multiple sclerosis new lesions segmentation challenge using a data management and processing infrastructure

International audienceThis proceedings book gathers methodological papers describing the segmenta-tion methods evaluated at the second MICCAI Challenge on Multiple Sclerosisnew lesions segmentation challenge using a data management and processinginfrastructure. This challenge took place as part of an effort of the OFSEP1(French registry on multiple sclerosis aiming at gathering, for research purposes,imaging data, clinical data and biological samples from the French populationof multiple sclerosis subjects) and FLI2(France Life Imaging, devoted to setupa national distributed e-infrastructure to manage and process medical imagingdata). These joint efforts are directed towards automatic segmentation of MRIscans of MS patients to help clinicians in their daily practice. This challengetook place at the MICCAI 2021 conference, on September 23rd 2021.More precisely, the problem addressed in this challenge is as follows. Con-ventional MRI is widely used for disease diagnosis, patient follow-up, monitoringof therapies, and more generally for the understanding of the natural history ofMS. A growing literature is interested in the delineation of new MS lesions onT2/FLAIR by comparing one time point to another. This marker is even morecrucial than the total number and volume of lesions as the accumulation of newlesions allows clinicians to know if a given anti-inflammatory DMD (disease mod-ifying drug) works for the patient. The only indicator of drug efficacy is indeedthe absence of new T2 lesions within the central nervous system. Performingthis new lesions count by hand is however a very complex and time consumingtask. Automating the detection of these new lesions would therefore be a majoradvance for evaluating the patient disease activity.Based on the success of the first MSSEG challenge, we have organized aMICCAI sponsored online challenge, this time on new MS lesions detection3.This challenge has allowed to 1) estimate the progress performed during the2016 - 2021 period, 2) extend the number of patients, and 3) focus on the newlesions crucial clinical marker. We have performed the evaluation task on a largedatabase (100 patients, each with two time points) compiled from the OFSEPcohort with 3D FLAIR images from different centers and scanners. As in ourprevious challenge, we have conducted the evaluation on a dedicated platform(FLI-IAM) to automate the evaluation and remove the potential biases due tochallengers seeing the images on which the evaluation is made

Robust and Accurate Mandible Segmentation on Dental CBCT Scans Affected by Metal Artifacts Using a Prior Shape Model

Accurate mandible segmentation is significant in the field of maxillofacial surgery to guide clinical diagnosis and treatment and develop appropriate surgical plans. In particular, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images with metal parts, such as those used in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS), often have susceptibilities when metal artifacts are present such as weak and blurred boundaries caused by a high-attenuation material and a low radiation dose in image acquisition. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a novel deep learning-based approach (SASeg) for automated mandible segmentation that perceives overall mandible anatomical knowledge. SASeg utilizes a prior shape feature extractor (PSFE) module based on a mean mandible shape, and recurrent connections maintain the continuity structure of the mandible. The effectiveness of the proposed network is substantiated on a dental CBCT dataset from orthodontic treatment containing 59 patients. The experiments show that the proposed SASeg can be easily used to improve the prediction accuracy in a dental CBCT dataset corrupted by metal artifacts. In addition, the experimental results on the PDDCA dataset demonstrate that, compared with the state-of-the-art mandible segmentation models, our proposed SASeg can achieve better segmentation performance

A Survey on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis

Deep learning algorithms, in particular convolutional networks, have rapidly become a methodology of choice for analyzing medical images. This paper reviews the major deep learning concepts pertinent to medical image analysis and summarizes over 300 contributions to the field, most of which appeared in the last year. We survey the use of deep learning for image classification, object detection, segmentation, registration, and other tasks and provide concise overviews of studies per application area. Open challenges and directions for future research are discussed.Comment: Revised survey includes expanded discussion section and reworked introductory section on common deep architectures. Added missed papers from before Feb 1st 201

Machine Learning in Medical Image Analysis

Machine learning is playing a pivotal role in medical image analysis. Many algorithms based on machine learning have been applied in medical imaging to solve classification, detection, and segmentation problems. Particularly, with the wide application of deep learning approaches, the performance of medical image analysis has been significantly improved. In this thesis, we investigate machine learning methods for two key challenges in medical image analysis: The first one is segmentation of medical images. The second one is learning with weak supervision in the context of medical imaging. The first main contribution of the thesis is a series of novel approaches for image segmentation. First, we propose a framework based on multi-scale image patches and random forests to segment small vessel disease (SVD) lesions on computed tomography (CT) images. This framework is validated in terms of spatial similarity, estimated lesion volumes, visual score ratings and was compared with human experts. The results showed that the proposed framework performs as well as human experts. Second, we propose a generic convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture called the DRINet for medical image segmentation. The DRINet approach is robust in three different types of segmentation tasks, which are multi-class cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) segmentation on brain CT images, multi-organ segmentation on abdomen CT images, and multi-class tumour segmentation on brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. Finally, we propose a CNN-based framework to segment acute ischemic lesions on diffusion weighted (DW)-MR images, where the lesions are highly variable in terms of position, shape, and size. Promising results were achieved on a large clinical dataset. The second main contribution of the thesis is two novel strategies for learning with weak supervision. First, we propose a novel strategy called context restoration to make use of the images without annotations. The context restoration strategy is a proxy learning process based on the CNN, which extracts semantic features from images without using annotations. It was validated on classification, localization, and segmentation problems and was superior to existing strategies. Second, we propose a patch-based framework using multi-instance learning to distinguish normal and abnormal SVD on CT images, where there are only coarse-grained labels available. Our framework was observed to work better than classic methods and clinical practice.Open Acces