Region-of-interest-based cardiac image segmentation with deep learning

Abstract

Despite the promising results obtained by deep learning methods in the field of medical image segmentation, lack of sufficient data always hinders performance to a certain degree. In this work, we explore the feasibility of applying deep learning methods on a pilot dataset. We present a simple and practical approach to perform segmentation in a 2D, slice-by-slice manner, based on region of interest (ROI) localization, applying an optimized training regime to improve segmentation performance from regions of interest. We start from two popular segmentation networks, the preferred model for medical segmentation, U-Net, and a general-purpose model, DeepLabV3+. Furthermore, we show that ensembling of these two fundamentally different architectures brings constant benefits by testing our approach on two different datasets, the publicly available ACDC challenge, and the imATFIB dataset from our in-house conducted clinical study. Results on the imATFIB dataset show that the proposed approach performs well with the provided training volumes, achieving an average Dice Similarity Coefficient of the whole heart of 89.89% on the validation set. Moreover, our algorithm achieved a mean Dice value of 91.87% on the ACDC validation, being comparable to the second best-performing approach on the challenge. Our approach provides an opportunity to serve as a building block of a computer-aided diagnostic system in a clinical setting.