Convolutional Neural Networks for Segmenting Cerebellar Fissures from Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The human cerebellum plays an important role in coordination tasks. Diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxias tend to cause severe damage to the cerebellum, leading patients to a progressive loss of motor coordination. The detection of such damages can help specialists to approximate the state of the...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Cabeza Ruiz, Robin, Velázquez Pérez, Luis, Linares Barranco, Alejandro, Pérez-Rodríguez, Roberto
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:idus________::e885f061327f66829b2860811d647e33
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/185592
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22041345
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:convolutional neural network
cerebellum segmentation
neurodegenerative disease
cerebellar fissures
magnetic resonance imaging
Descrição
Resumo:The human cerebellum plays an important role in coordination tasks. Diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxias tend to cause severe damage to the cerebellum, leading patients to a progressive loss of motor coordination. The detection of such damages can help specialists to approximate the state of the disease, as well as to perform statistical analysis, in order to propose treatment therapies for the patients. Manual segmentation of such patterns from magnetic resonance imaging is a very difficult and time-consuming task, and is not a viable solution if the number of images to process is relatively large. In recent years, deep learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs or convnets) have experienced an increased development, and many researchers have used them to automatically segment medical images. In this research, we propose the use of convolutional neural networks for automatically segmenting the cerebellar fissures from brain magnetic resonance imaging. Three models are presented, based on the same CNN architecture, for obtaining three different binary masks: fissures, cerebellum with fissures, and cerebellum without fissures. The models perform well in terms of precision and efficiency. Evaluation results show that convnets can be trained for such purposes, and could be considered as additional tools in the diagnosis and characterization of neurodegenerative diseases.