End-to-end volumetric segmentation of white matter hyperintensities using deep learning.

Journal: Computer methods and programs in biomedicine
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Reliable detection of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is crucial for studying the impact of diffuse white-matter pathology on brain health and monitoring changes in WMH load over time. However, manual annotation of 3D high-dimensional neuroimages is laborious and can be prone to biases and errors in the annotation procedure. In this study, we evaluate the performance of deep learning (DL) segmentation tools and propose a novel volumetric segmentation model incorporating self-attention via a transformer-based architecture. Ultimately, we aim to evaluate diverse factors that influence WMH segmentation, aiming for a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-the-art algorithms in a broader context.

Authors

  • Sadaf Farkhani
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.
  • Naiara Demnitz
    Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance, Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital-Amager and Hvidovre, Kattegaard Alle 30, Hvidovre, Denmark.
  • Carl-Johan Boraxbekk
    Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance, Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital-Amager and Hvidovre, Kattegaard Alle 30, Hvidovre, Denmark; Institute for Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark; Institute of Sports Medicine Copenhagen (ISMC), Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Henrik Lundell
    Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance, Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital-Amager and Hvidovre, Kattegaard Alle 30, Hvidovre, Denmark; Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
  • Hartwig Roman Siebner
    Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance, Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital-Amager and Hvidovre, Kattegaard Alle 30, Hvidovre, Denmark; Institute for Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Esben Thade Petersen
    Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance, Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital-Amager and Hvidovre, Kattegaard Alle 30, Hvidovre, Denmark; Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
  • Kristoffer Hougaard Madsen
    Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, PR China.