Automated segmentation of fractured distal radii by 3D geodesic active contouring of in vivo HR-pQCT images
Loading...
Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2021
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Collections
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Bone
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
147
Issue / Number
Pages / Duration
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Elsevier
Place of publication / Event location
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
Radius fractures are among the most common fracture types; however, there is limited consensus on the standard of care. A better understanding of the fracture healing process could help to shape future treatment protocols and thus improve functional outcomes of patients. High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) allows monitoring and evaluation of the radius on the micro-structural level, which is crucial to our understanding of fracture healing. However, current radius fracture studies using HR-pQCT are limited by the lack of automated contouring routines, hence only including small number of patients due to the prohibitively time-consuming task of manually contouring HR-pQCT images. In the present study, a new method to automatically contour images of distal radius fractures based on 3D morphological geodesic active contours (3D-GAC) is presented. Contours of 60 HR-pQCT images of fractured and conservatively treated radii spanning the healing process up to one year post-fracture are compared to the current gold standard, hand-drawn 2D contours, to assess the accuracy of the algorithm. Furthermore, robustness was established by applying the algorithm to HR-pQCT images of intact radii of 73 patients and comparing the resulting morphometric indices to the gold standard patient evaluation including a threshold- and dilation-based contouring approach. Reproducibility was evaluated using repeat scans of intact radii of 19 patients. The new 3D-GAC approach offers contours within inter-operator variability for images of fractured distal radii (mean Dice score of 0.992 ± 0.004 versus median operator Dice score of 0.993 ± 0.006). The generated contours for images of intact radii yielded morphometric indices within the in vivo reproducibility limits compared to the current gold standard. Additionally, the 3D-GAC approach shows an improved robustness against failure (n = 4) when dealing with cortical interruptions, fracture fragments, etc. compared with the automatic, default manufacturer pipeline (n = 40). Using the 3D-GAC approach assures consistent results, while reducing the need for time-consuming hand-contouring.
Keywords
Subject (DDC)
Event
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
8756-3282
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Hybrid
Citation
Ohs, N., Collins, C. J., Tourolle, D. C., Atkins, P. R., Schroeder, B. J., Blauth, M., Christen, P., & Müller, R. (2021). Automated segmentation of fractured distal radii by 3D geodesic active contouring of in vivo HR-pQCT images. Bone, 147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2021.115930