Automatic Segmentation of Hip Osteophytes in DXA Scans Using U-Nets

Raja Ebsim* (Corresponding Author), Benjamin G. Faber, Fiona Saunders, Monika Frysz, Jenny Gregory, Nicholas C. Harvey, Jonathan H. Tobias, Claudia Lindner, Timothy F. Cootes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingPublished conference contribution

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Osteophytes are distinctive radiographic features of osteo-arthritis (OA) in the form of small bone spurs protruding from joints that contribute significantly to symptoms. Identifying the genetic determinants of osteophytes would improve the understanding of their biological pathways and contributions to OA. To date, this has not been possible due to the costs and challenges associated with manually outlining osteophytes in sufficiently large datasets. Automatic systems that can segment osteophytes would pave the way for this research and also have potential clinical applications. We propose, to the best of our knowledge, the first work on automating pixel-wise segmentation of osteophytes in hip dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans (DXAs). Based on U-Nets, we developed an automatic system to detect and segment osteophytes at the superior and the inferior femoral head, and the lateral acetabulum. The system achieved sensitivity, specificity, and average Dice scores (±std) of (0.98, 0.92, 0.71 ± 0.19 ) for the superior femoral head [793 DXAs], (0.96, 0.85, 0.66 ± 0.24 ) for the inferior femoral head [409 DXAs], and (0.94, 0.73, 0.64 ± 0.24 ) for the lateral acetabulum [760 DXAs]. This work enables large-scale genetic analyses of the role of osteophytes in OA, and opens doors to using low-radiation DXAs for screening for radiographic hip OA.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention
Subtitle of host publicationMICCAI 2022 - 25th International Conference, Proceedings
EditorsLinwei Wang, Qi Dou, P. Thomas Fletcher, Stefanie Speidel, Shuo Li
PublisherSpringer
Pages3-12
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-031-16443-9
ISBN (Print)9783031164422
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Sept 2022
Event25th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2022 - Singapore, Singapore
Duration: 18 Sept 202222 Sept 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13435 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference25th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2022
Country/TerritorySingapore
CitySingapore
Period18/09/2222/09/22

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. RE, FS and MF are funded by a Wellcome Trust collaborative award (reference number 209233). BGF is supported by a Medical Research Council (MRC) clinical research training fellowship (MR/S021280/1). CL was funded by the MRC, UK (MR/S00405X/1) as well as a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (223267/Z/21/Z). NCH is supported by the UK Medical Research Council [MC_PC_21003; MC_PC_21001].

Keywords

  • Automated osteoarthritis risk assessment
  • Computational anatomy
  • Osteophytes detection
  • Osteophytes segmentation
  • U-Nets

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Automatic Segmentation of Hip Osteophytes in DXA Scans Using U-Nets'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this