Automatic Segmentation of Muscle Tissue and Inter-muscular Fat in Thigh and Calf MRI Images

Rula Amer, Jannette Nassar, David Bendahan, Hayit Greenspan, Noam Ben-Eliezer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of thigh and calf muscles is one of the most effective techniques for estimating fat infiltration into muscular dystrophies. The infiltration of adipose tissue into the diseased muscle region varies in its severity across, and within, patients. In order to efficiently quantify the infiltration of fat, accurate segmentation of muscle and fat is needed. An estimation of the amount of infiltrated fat is typically done visually by experts. Several algorithmic solutions have been proposed for automatic segmentation. While these methods may work well in mild cases, they struggle in moderate and severe cases due to the high variability in the intensity of infiltration, and the tissue’s heterogeneous nature. To address these challenges, we propose a deep-learning approach, producing robust results with high Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.964, 0.917 and 0.933 for muscle-region, healthy muscle and inter-muscular adipose tissue (IMAT) segmentation, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2019 - 22nd International Conference, Proceedings
EditorsDinggang Shen, Pew-Thian Yap, Tianming Liu, Terry M. Peters, Ali Khan, Lawrence H. Staib, Caroline Essert, Sean Zhou
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages219-227
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9783030322441
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Event22nd International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2019 - Shenzhen, China
Duration: 13 Oct 201917 Oct 2019

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11765 LNCS

Conference

Conference22nd International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2019
Country/TerritoryChina
CityShenzhen
Period13/10/1917/10/19

Keywords

  • Clustering
  • Deep learning
  • MRI
  • Muscle and fat segmentation
  • Muscular dystrophy

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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