End-to-End Discriminative Deep Network for Liver Lesion Classification

Colorectal liver metastasis is one of most aggressive liver malignancies. While the definition of lesion type based on CT images determines the diagnosis and therapeutic strategy, the discrimination between cancerous and non-cancerous lesions are critical and requires highly skilled expertise, experience and time. In the present work we introduce an end-to-end deep learning approach to assist in the discrimination between liver metastases from colorectal cancer and benign cysts in abdominal CT images of the liver. Our approach incorporates the efficient feature extraction of InceptionV3 combined with residual connections and pre-trained weights from ImageNet. The architecture also includes fully connected classification layers to generate a probabilistic output of lesion type. We use an in-house clinical biobank with 230 liver lesions originating from 63 patients. With an accuracy of 0.96 and a F1-score of 0.92, the results obtained with the proposed approach surpasses state of the art methods. Our work provides the basis for incorporating machine learning tools in specialized radiology software to assist physicians in the early detection and treatment of liver lesions

Development and Validation of a Risk Score for Chronic Kidney Disease in HIV Infection Using Prospective Cohort Data from the D:A:D Study

Ristola M. on työryhmien DAD Study Grp ; Royal Free Hosp Clin Cohort ; INSIGHT Study Grp ; SMART Study Grp ; ESPRIT Study Grp jäsen.Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major health issue for HIV-positive individuals, associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Development and implementation of a risk score model for CKD would allow comparison of the risks and benefits of adding potentially nephrotoxic antiretrovirals to a treatment regimen and would identify those at greatest risk of CKD. The aims of this study were to develop a simple, externally validated, and widely applicable long-term risk score model for CKD in HIV-positive individuals that can guide decision making in clinical practice. Methods and Findings A total of 17,954 HIV-positive individuals from the Data Collection on Adverse Events of Anti-HIV Drugs (D:A:D) study with >= 3 estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) values after 1 January 2004 were included. Baseline was defined as the first eGFR > 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 after 1 January 2004; individuals with exposure to tenofovir, atazanavir, atazanavir/ritonavir, lopinavir/ritonavir, other boosted protease inhibitors before baseline were excluded. CKD was defined as confirmed (>3 mo apart) eGFR In the D:A:D study, 641 individuals developed CKD during 103,185 person-years of follow-up (PYFU; incidence 6.2/1,000 PYFU, 95% CI 5.7-6.7; median follow-up 6.1 y, range 0.3-9.1 y). Older age, intravenous drug use, hepatitis C coinfection, lower baseline eGFR, female gender, lower CD4 count nadir, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) predicted CKD. The adjusted incidence rate ratios of these nine categorical variables were scaled and summed to create the risk score. The median risk score at baseline was -2 (interquartile range -4 to 2). There was a 1: 393 chance of developing CKD in the next 5 y in the low risk group (risk score = 5, 505 events), respectively. Number needed to harm (NNTH) at 5 y when starting unboosted atazanavir or lopinavir/ritonavir among those with a low risk score was 1,702 (95% CI 1,166-3,367); NNTH was 202 (95% CI 159-278) and 21 (95% CI 19-23), respectively, for those with a medium and high risk score. NNTH was 739 (95% CI 506-1462), 88 (95% CI 69-121), and 9 (95% CI 8-10) for those with a low, medium, and high risk score, respectively, starting tenofovir, atazanavir/ritonavir, or another boosted protease inhibitor. The Royal Free Hospital Clinic Cohort included 2,548 individuals, of whom 94 individuals developed CKD (3.7%) during 18,376 PYFU (median follow-up 7.4 y, range 0.3-12.7 y). Of 2,013 individuals included from the SMART/ESPRIT control arms, 32 individuals developed CKD (1.6%) during 8,452 PYFU (median follow-up 4.1 y, range 0.6-8.1 y). External validation showed that the risk score predicted well in these cohorts. Limitations of this study included limited data on race and no information on proteinuria. Conclusions Both traditional and HIV-related risk factors were predictive of CKD. These factors were used to develop a risk score for CKD in HIV infection, externally validated, that has direct clinical relevance for patients and clinicians to weigh the benefits of certain antiretrovirals against the risk of CKD and to identify those at greatest risk of CKD.Peer reviewe

Predicting the Response to FOLFOX-Based Chemotherapy Regimen from Untreated Liver Metastases on Baseline CT: a Deep Neural Network Approach

In developed countries, colorectal cancer is the second cause of cancer-related mortality. Chemotherapy is considered a standard treatment for colorectal liver metastases (CLM). Among patients who develop CLM, the assessment of patient response to chemotherapy is often required to determine the need for second-line chemotherapy and eligibility for surgery. However, while FOLFOX-based regimens are typically used for CLM treatment, the identification of responsive patients remains elusive. Computer-aided diagnosis systems may provide insight in the classification of liver metastases identified on diagnostic images. In this paper, we propose a fully automated framework based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) which first differentiates treated and untreated lesions to identify new lesions appearing on CT scans, followed by a fully connected neural networks to predict from untreated lesions in pre-treatment computed tomography (CT) for patients with CLM undergoing chemotherapy, their response to a FOLFOX with Bevacizumab regimen as first-line of treatment. The ground truth for assessment of treatment response was histopathology-determined tumor regression grade. Our DCNN approach trained on 444 lesions from 202 patients achieved accuracies of 91% for differentiating treated and untreated lesions, and 78% for predicting the response to FOLFOX-based chemotherapy regimen. Experimental results showed that our method outperformed traditional machine learning algorithms and may allow for the early detection of non-responsive patients

Laparoscopic versus open parenchymal preserving liver resections in the posterosuperior segments: a case-matched study

Patients with lesions in the posterosuperior (PS) segments of the liver have been considered poor candidates for laparoscopic liver resection (LLR). This study aims to compare short-term outcomes of LLR and open liver resections (OLR) in the PS segments.status: publishe

Liver segmentation: indications, techniques and future directions

Abstract Objectives Liver volumetry has emerged as an important tool in clinical practice. Liver volume is assessed primarily via organ segmentation of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. The goal of this paper is to provide an accessible overview of liver segmentation targeted at radiologists and other healthcare professionals. Methods Using images from CT and MRI, this paper reviews the indications for liver segmentation, technical approaches used in segmentation software and the developing roles of liver segmentation in clinical practice. Results Liver segmentation for volumetric assessment is indicated prior to major hepatectomy, portal vein embolisation, associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) and transplant. Segmentation software can be categorised according to amount of user input involved: manual, semi-automated and fully automated. Manual segmentation is considered the “gold standard” in clinical practice and research, but is tedious and time-consuming. Increasingly automated segmentation approaches are more robust, but may suffer from certain segmentation pitfalls. Emerging applications of segmentation include surgical planning and integration with MRI-based biomarkers. Conclusions Liver segmentation has multiple clinical applications and is expanding in scope. Clinicians can employ semi-automated or fully automated segmentation options to more efficiently integrate volumetry into clinical practice. Teaching points • Liver volume is assessed via organ segmentation on CT and MRI examinations. • Liver segmentation is used for volume assessment prior to major hepatic procedures. • Segmentation approaches may be categorised according to the amount of user input involved. • Emerging applications include surgical planning and integration with MRI-based biomarkers

Comparison of techniques for volumetric analysis of the future liver remnant: implications for major hepatic resections

The purpose of this work was to compare measured and estimated volumetry prior to liver resection. Data for consecutive patients submitted to major liver resection for colorectal liver metastases at two centres during 2004-2012 were reviewed. All patients underwent volumetric analysis to define the measured total liver volume (mTLV) and measured future liver remnant ratio (mR(FLR)). The estimated total liver volume (eTLV) standardized to body surface area and estimated future liver remnant ratio (eR(FLR)) were calculated. Descriptive statistics were generated and compared. A difference between mR(FLR) and eR(FLR) of ±5% was considered clinically relevant. Data for a total of 116 patients were included. All patients underwent major resection and 51% underwent portal vein embolization. The mean difference between mTLV and eTLV was 157 ml (P < 0.0001), whereas the mean difference between mR(FLR) and eR(FLR) was -1.7% (P = 0.013). By linear regression, eTLV was only moderately predictive of mTLV (R(2) = 0.35). The distribution of differences between mR(FLR) and eR(FLR) demonstrated that the formula over- or underestimated mR(FLR) by ≥5% in 31.9% of patients. Measured and estimated volumetry yielded differences in the FLR of ≥5% in almost one-third of patients, potentially affecting clinical decision making. Estimated volumetry should be used cautiously and cannot be recommended for general us