Computed tomography-based automated measurement of abdominal aortic aneurysm using semantic segmentation with active learning

Abstract

Accurate measurement of abdominal aortic aneurysm is essential for selecting suitable stent-grafts to avoid complications of endovascular aneurysm repair. However, the conventional image-based measurements are inaccurate and time-consuming. We introduce the automated workflow including semantic segmentation with active learning (AL) and measurement using an application programming interface of computer-aided design. 300 patients underwent CT scans, and semantic segmentation for aorta, thrombus, calcification, and vessels was performed in 60-300 cases with AL across five stages using UNETR, SwinUNETR, and nnU-Net consisted of 2D, 3D U-Net, 2D-3D U-Net ensemble, and cascaded 3D U-Net. 7 clinical landmarks were automatically measured for 96 patients. In AL stage 5, 3D U-Net achieved the highest dice similarity coefficient (DSC) with statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) except from the 2D-3D U-Net ensemble and cascade 3D U-Net. SwinUNETR excelled in 95% Hausdorff distance (HD95) with significant differences (p < 0.01) except from UNETR and 3D U-Net. DSC of aorta and calcification were saturated at stage 1 and 4, whereas thrombus and vessels were continuously improved at stage 5. The segmentation time between the manual and AL-corrected segmentation using the best model (3D U-Net) was reduced to 9.51 +/- 1.02, 2.09 +/- 1.06, 1.07 +/- 1.10, and 1.07 +/- 0.97 min for the aorta, thrombus, calcification, and vessels, respectively (p < 0.001). All measurement and tortuosity ratio measured - 1.71 +/- 6.53 mm and - 0.15 +/- 0.25. We developed an automated workflow with semantic segmentation and measurement, demonstrating its efficiency compared to conventional methods.