Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering, University of Alberta, Donadeo ICE 11-263, 9211-116 Street, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1H9, Canada.
Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, 2-50 Corbett Hall, Edmonton, AB, T6G2G4, Canada.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2022 Apr;50(4):401-412. doi: 10.1007/s10439-022-02925-0. Epub 2022 Feb 24.
A recent innovation in scoliosis monitoring is the use of ultrasonography, which provides true 3D information in one scan and does not emit ionizing radiation. Measuring the severity of scoliosis on ultrasonographs requires identifying lamina pairs on the most tilted vertebrae, which is difficult and time-consuming. To expedite and automate measurement steps, this paper detailed an automatic convolutional neural network-based algorithm for identifying the laminae on 3D ultrasonographs. The predicted laminae were manually paired to measure the lateral spinal curvature on the coronal view, called the Cobb angle. In total, 130 spinal ultrasonographs of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis recruited from a scoliosis clinic were selected, with 70 for training and 60 for testing. Data augmentation increased the effective training set size to 140 ultrasonographs. Semi-automatic Cobb measurements were compared to manual measurements on the same ultrasonographs. The semi-automatic measurements demonstrated good inter-method reliability (ICC = 0.87) and performed better on thoracic (ICC = 0.91) than lumbar curves (ICC = 0.81). The mean absolute difference and standard deviation between semi-automatic and manual was 3.6° ± 3.0°. In conclusion, the semi-automatic method to measure the Cobb angle on ultrasonographs is feasible and accurate. This is the first algorithm that automates steps of Cobb angle measurement on ultrasonographs.
最近在脊柱侧弯监测方面的一项创新是使用超声，它在一次扫描中提供真实的 3D 信息，并且不发射电离辐射。在超声图像上测量脊柱侧弯的严重程度需要识别最倾斜的椎骨的椎板对，这既困难又耗时。为了加快和自动化测量步骤，本文详细介绍了一种基于自动卷积神经网络的算法，用于识别 3D 超声图像上的椎板。预测的椎板被手动配对，以测量冠状视图上的侧向脊柱曲率，称为 Cobb 角。总共从一家脊柱侧弯诊所招募了 130 名特发性脊柱侧弯青少年的脊柱超声图像，其中 70 个用于训练，60 个用于测试。数据扩充将有效训练集大小增加到 140 个超声图像。半自动 Cobb 测量与同一超声图像上的手动测量进行了比较。半自动测量在胸椎（ICC = 0.91）上的表现优于腰椎曲线（ICC = 0.81）（ICC = 0.87），具有良好的组内相关性。半自动和手动之间的平均绝对差异和标准差为 3.6°±3.0°。总之，在超声图像上测量 Cobb 角的半自动方法是可行且准确的。这是第一个自动执行超声图像上 Cobb 角测量步骤的算法。
