837 research outputs found
Supervised machine learning based multi-task artificial intelligence classification of retinopathies
Artificial intelligence (AI) classification holds promise as a novel and
affordable screening tool for clinical management of ocular diseases. Rural and
underserved areas, which suffer from lack of access to experienced
ophthalmologists may particularly benefit from this technology. Quantitative
optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging provides excellent
capability to identify subtle vascular distortions, which are useful for
classifying retinovascular diseases. However, application of AI for
differentiation and classification of multiple eye diseases is not yet
established. In this study, we demonstrate supervised machine learning based
multi-task OCTA classification. We sought 1) to differentiate normal from
diseased ocular conditions, 2) to differentiate different ocular disease
conditions from each other, and 3) to stage the severity of each ocular
condition. Quantitative OCTA features, including blood vessel tortuosity (BVT),
blood vascular caliber (BVC), vessel perimeter index (VPI), blood vessel
density (BVD), foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area (FAZ-A), and FAZ contour
irregularity (FAZ-CI) were fully automatically extracted from the OCTA images.
A stepwise backward elimination approach was employed to identify sensitive
OCTA features and optimal-feature-combinations for the multi-task
classification. For proof-of-concept demonstration, diabetic retinopathy (DR)
and sickle cell retinopathy (SCR) were used to validate the supervised machine
leaning classifier. The presented AI classification methodology is applicable
and can be readily extended to other ocular diseases, holding promise to enable
a mass-screening platform for clinical deployment and telemedicine.Comment: Supplemental material attached at the en
VIPAR, a quantitative approach to 3D histopathology applied to lymphatic malformations.
BACKGROUND: Lack of investigatory and diagnostic tools has been a major contributing factor to the failure to mechanistically understand lymphedema and other lymphatic disorders in order to develop effective drug and surgical therapies. One difficulty has been understanding the true changes in lymph vessel pathology from standard 2D tissue sections. METHODS: VIPAR (volume information-based histopathological analysis by 3D reconstruction and data extraction), a light-sheet microscopy-based approach for the analysis of tissue biopsies, is based on digital reconstruction and visualization of microscopic image stacks. VIPAR allows semiautomated segmentation of the vasculature and subsequent nonbiased extraction of characteristic vessel shape and connectivity parameters. We applied VIPAR to analyze biopsies from healthy lymphedematous and lymphangiomatous skin. RESULTS: Digital 3D reconstruction provided a directly visually interpretable, comprehensive representation of the lymphatic and blood vessels in the analyzed tissue volumes. The most conspicuous features were disrupted lymphatic vessels in lymphedematous skin and a hyperplasia (4.36-fold lymphatic vessel volume increase) in the lymphangiomatous skin. Both abnormalities were detected by the connectivity analysis based on extracted vessel shape and structure data. The quantitative evaluation of extracted data revealed a significant reduction of lymphatic segment length (51.3% and 54.2%) and straightness (89.2% and 83.7%) for lymphedematous and lymphangiomatous skin, respectively. Blood vessel length was significantly increased in the lymphangiomatous sample (239.3%). CONCLUSION: VIPAR is a volume-based tissue reconstruction data extraction and analysis approach that successfully distinguished healthy from lymphedematous and lymphangiomatous skin. Its application is not limited to the vascular systems or skin. FUNDING: Max Planck Society, DFG (SFB 656), and Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence EXC 1003
Chimeranet: U-Net for Hair Detection in Dermoscopic Skin Lesion Images
Hair and ruler mark structures in dermoscopic images are an obstacle preventing accurate image segmentation and detection of critical network features. Recognition and removal of hairs from images can be challenging, especially for hairs that are thin, overlapping, faded, or of similar color as skin or overlaid on a textured lesion. This paper proposes a novel deep learning (DL) technique to detect hair and ruler marks in skin lesion images. Our proposed ChimeraNet is an encoder-decoder architecture that employs pretrained EfficientNet in the encoder and squeeze-and-excitation residual (SERes) structures in the decoder. We applied this approach at multiple image sizes and evaluated it using the publicly available HAM10000 (ISIC2018 Task 3) skin lesion dataset. Our test results show that the largest image size (448 x 448) gave the highest accuracy of 98.23 and Jaccard index of 0.65 on the HAM10000 (ISIC 2018 Task 3) skin lesion dataset, exhibiting better performance than for two well-known deep learning approaches, U-Net and ResUNet-a. We found the Dice loss function to give the best results for all measures. Further evaluated on 25 additional test images, the technique yields state-of-the-art accuracy compared to 8 previously reported classical techniques. We conclude that the proposed ChimeraNet architecture may enable improved detection of fine image structures. Further application of DL techniques to detect dermoscopy structures is warranted
Jekyll: Attacking Medical Image Diagnostics using Deep Generative Models
Advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown tremendous promise in the
medical domain. However, the deep learning tools that are helping the domain,
can also be used against it. Given the prevalence of fraud in the healthcare
domain, it is important to consider the adversarial use of DNNs in manipulating
sensitive data that is crucial to patient healthcare. In this work, we present
the design and implementation of a DNN-based image translation attack on
biomedical imagery. More specifically, we propose Jekyll, a neural style
transfer framework that takes as input a biomedical image of a patient and
translates it to a new image that indicates an attacker-chosen disease
condition. The potential for fraudulent claims based on such generated 'fake'
medical images is significant, and we demonstrate successful attacks on both
X-rays and retinal fundus image modalities. We show that these attacks manage
to mislead both medical professionals and algorithmic detection schemes.
Lastly, we also investigate defensive measures based on machine learning to
detect images generated by Jekyll.Comment: Published in proceedings of the 5th European Symposium on Security
and Privacy (EuroS&P '20
Multimodal optical systems for clinical oncology
This thesis presents three multimodal optical (light-based) systems designed to improve the capabilities of existing optical modalities for cancer diagnostics and theranostics. Optical diagnostic and therapeutic modalities have seen tremendous success in improving the detection, monitoring, and treatment of cancer. For example, optical spectroscopies can accurately distinguish between healthy and diseased tissues, fluorescence imaging can light up tumours for surgical guidance, and laser systems can treat many epithelial cancers. However, despite these advances, prognoses for many cancers remain poor, positive margin rates following resection remain high, and visual inspection and palpation remain crucial for tumour detection. The synergistic combination of multiple optical modalities, as presented here, offers a promising solution. The first multimodal optical system (Chapter 3) combines Raman spectroscopic diagnostics with photodynamic therapy using a custom-built multimodal optical probe. Crucially, this system demonstrates the feasibility of nanoparticle-free theranostics, which could simplify the clinical translation of cancer theranostic systems without sacrificing diagnostic or therapeutic benefit. The second system (Chapter 4) applies computer vision to Raman spectroscopic diagnostics to achieve spatial spectroscopic diagnostics. It provides an augmented reality display of the surgical field-of-view, overlaying spatially co-registered spectroscopic diagnoses onto imaging data. This enables the translation of Raman spectroscopy from a 1D technique to a 2D diagnostic modality and overcomes the trade-off between diagnostic accuracy and field-of-view that has limited optical systems to date. The final system (Chapter 5) integrates fluorescence imaging and Raman spectroscopy for fluorescence-guided spatial spectroscopic diagnostics. This facilitates macroscopic tumour identification to guide accurate spectroscopic margin delineation, enabling the spectroscopic examination of suspicious lesions across large tissue areas. Together, these multimodal optical systems demonstrate that the integration of multiple optical modalities has potential to improve patient outcomes through enhanced tumour detection and precision-targeted therapies.Open Acces
Radiotherapy Response Using Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Liver Patients Treated with Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
Magnetic resonance imaging is utilized as an important tool in radiation oncology for delineation of healthy and cancerous tissues, and evaluating the functionality of those tissues, structures, and organs. Currently, the clinical imaging protocol at Virginia Commonwealth University includes anatomical imaging for tissue and structure delineation, and to observe treatment induced changes. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is also acquired for calculation of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values to provide quantitative information on tissue diffusivity and microstructure. However, anatomical images and ADC values may not display the true extent of changes in tissue. This work seeks to further utilize the capabilities of MRI and expand its role in treatment response monitoring for liver cancer patients treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). To do so, an imaging protocol and image analysis methodology to evaluate treatment changes on pre- and post-treatment image sets was developed. An extension of DWI, termed intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging, was utilized to quantitatively assess levels of perfusion and diffusion within the liver and tumor. Acquisition of high-quality diffusion weighted images of the liver necessitated the development of an MR safe respiratory motion management device, which was designed, constructed and evaluated in this work. An imaging protocol was developed providing anatomical and functional images of the liver, acquired under breath hold, utilizing the respiratory motion management device. An IVIM parameter calculation and texture analysis workflow was developed using MATLAB, and applied to acquired data sets from multiple studies, including past clinical cases, investigator, healthy volunteer, and liver cancer patient . Differences in IVIM and texture analysis parameters were investigated for healthy and diseased tissue, and for select dose regions from pre- and post-treatment imaging sessions. Significant differences, at a voxel level, were found between healthy and diseased tissue, and pre- and post-treatment volumes, for multiple parameters, including apparent diffusion coefficient, pure diffusion, and perfusion, as well as for various texture features. Overall, this study showed the potential of IVIM and texture analysis to be used for discriminating between healthy and diseased tissues in the liver, and for indication of treatment response
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