Robust deep labeling of radiological emphysema subtypes using squeeze and excitation convolutional neural networks: The MESA Lung and SPIROMICS Studies

Pulmonary emphysema, the progressive, irreversible loss of lung tissue, is conventionally categorized into three subtypes identifiable on pathology and on lung computed tomography (CT) images. Recent work has led to the unsupervised learning of ten spatially-informed lung texture patterns (sLTPs) on lung CT, representing distinct patterns of emphysematous lung parenchyma based on both textural appearance and spatial location within the lung, and which aggregate into 6 robust and reproducible CT Emphysema Subtypes (CTES). Existing methods for sLTP segmentation, however, are slow and highly sensitive to changes in CT acquisition protocol. In this work, we present a robust 3-D squeeze-and-excitation CNN for supervised classification of sLTPs and CTES on lung CT. Our results demonstrate that this model achieves accurate and reproducible sLTP segmentation on lung CTscans, across two independent cohorts and independently of scanner manufacturer and model.

QuickTumorNet: Fast Automatic Multi-Class Segmentation of Brain Tumors

Non-invasive techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are widely employed in brain tumor diagnostics. However, manual segmentation of brain tumors from 3D MRI volumes is a time-consuming task that requires trained expert radiologists. Due to the subjectivity of manual segmentation, there is low inter-rater reliability which can result in diagnostic discrepancies. As the success of many brain tumor treatments depends on early intervention, early detection is paramount. In this context, a fully automated segmentation method for brain tumor segmentation is necessary as an efficient and reliable method for brain tumor detection and quantification. In this study, we propose an end-to-end approach for brain tumor segmentation, capitalizing on a modified version of QuickNAT, a brain tissue type segmentation deep convolutional neural network (CNN). Our method was evaluated on a data set of 233 patient's T1 weighted images containing three tumor type classes annotated (meningioma, glioma, and pituitary). Our model, QuickTumorNet, demonstrated fast, reliable, and accurate brain tumor segmentation that can be utilized to assist clinicians in diagnosis and treatment.