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Automated bony region identification using artificial neural networks: reliability and validation measurements

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Abstract

Objective

The objective was to develop tools for automating the identification of bony structures, to assess the reliability of this technique against manual raters, and to validate the resulting regions of interest against physical surface scans obtained from the same specimen.

Materials and methods

Artificial intelligence-based algorithms have been used for image segmentation, specifically artificial neural networks (ANNs). For this study, an ANN was created and trained to identify the phalanges of the human hand.

Results

The relative overlap between the ANN and a manual tracer was 0.87, 0.82, and 0.76, for the proximal, middle, and distal index phalanx bones respectively. Compared with the physical surface scans, the ANN-generated surface representations differed on average by 0.35 mm, 0.29 mm, and 0.40 mm for the proximal, middle, and distal phalanges respectively. Furthermore, the ANN proved to segment the structures in less than one-tenth of the time required by a manual rater.

Conclusions

The ANN has proven to be a reliable and valid means of segmenting the phalanx bones from CT images. Employing automated methods such as the ANN for segmentation, eliminates the likelihood of rater drift and inter-rater variability. Automated methods also decrease the amount of time and manual effort required to extract the data of interest, thereby making the feasibility of patient-specific modeling a reality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Taften Kuhl. Acknowledgements of financial support: awards R21EB001501 and R01EB005973 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, and an NSF Graduate Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Esther E. Gassman, Stephanie M. Powell, Nicole A. Kallemeyn, Nicole A. DeVries, Kiran H. Shivanna, Vincent A. Magnotta, Brian D. Adams & Nicole M. Grosland

  2. Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Brian D. Adams & Nicole M. Grosland

  3. Center for Computer-Aided Design, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Esther E. Gassman, Nicole A. Kallemeyn, Nicole A. DeVries, Kiran H. Shivanna, Vincent A. Magnotta & Nicole M. Grosland

  4. Department of Radiology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Stephanie M. Powell, Vincent A. Magnotta & Austin J. Ramme

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  1. Esther E. Gassman
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  2. Stephanie M. Powell
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Correspondence to Nicole M. Grosland.

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Gassman, E.E., Powell, S.M., Kallemeyn, N.A. et al. Automated bony region identification using artificial neural networks: reliability and validation measurements. Skeletal Radiol 37, 313–319 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-007-0434-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-007-0434-z

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