Automatic spinal cord segmentation: Generalization across MR parameters, sites, vendors and pathologies
Motivation: Spinal cord cross-sectional area (CSA) is an important biomarker for neurodegenerative and traumatic diseases. However, CSA measurements vary across MRI contrasts and imaging protocols, limiting its use in multi-center studies. Goal(s): The goal is to evaluate CSA variability using a novel contrast-agnostic segmentation method. Approach: We compared this method to the Spinal Cord Toolbox's DeepSeg, analyzing CSA across different sites, and MRI vendors. Additionally, we compared the segmentations in diverse datasets and pathologies. Results: The contrast-agnostic segmentation showed lower CSA variability, and superior performance in most cases, except for intramedullary cord compression, where the Spinal Cord Toolbox's DeepSeg was more accurate. Impact: The contrast-agnostic method yields reliable spinal cord CSA measurements, independent of MRI contrasts and vendors. This, combined with a soft segmentation output, can potentially detect subtle spinal cord atrophy in prospective multi-center cohorts.
Authors
- Dimitri Van De Ville (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2879-3861)
- Jiwon Oh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5519-6088)
- Julien Cohen‐Adad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3662-9532)
- Markus Hupp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0845-2514)
- Shannon Kolind (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1362-1968)
- Anthony Traboulsee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0351-9639)
- Merve Kaptan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-4911)
- Patrick Freund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4851-2246)
- Sandrine Bédard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-1133)
- Falk Eippert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3986-1719)
- Enamundram Naga Karthik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2940-5514)
- Alexandre Prat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-0580)
- Nawal Kinany (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3804-0991)
- Roger C. Tam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4593-2587)
- Ilaria Ricchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9941-2475)
- Christoph Stefan Aigner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3618-9610)
- Lisa Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5058-9464)
- Zachary Vavasour (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2586-6316)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings on CD-ROM - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition
- Published
- 2024-11-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.58530/2024/1026
- Primary Topic
- Medical Imaging and Analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00