In vivo semi-automatic segmentation of multicontrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance for prospective cohort studies on plaque tissue composition: initial experience

Abstract Automatic in vivo segmentation of multicontrast (multisequence) carotid magnetic resonance for plaque composition has been proposed as a substitute for manual review to save time and reduce inter-reader variability in large-scale or multicenter studies. Using serial images from a prospective longitudinal study, we sought to compare a semi-automatic approach versus expert human reading in analyzing carotid atherosclerosis progression. Baseline and 6-month follow-up multicontrast carotid images from 59 asymptomatic subjects with 16–79 % carotid stenosis were reviewed by both trained radiologists with 2–4 years of specialized experience in carotid plaque characterization with MRI and a previously reported automatic atherosclerotic plaque segmentation algorithm, referred to as morphology-enhanced probabilistic plaque segmentation (MEPPS). Agreement on measurements from individual time points, as well as on compositional changes, was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). There was good agreement between manual and MEPPS reviews on individual time points for calcification (CA) (area: ICC; 0.85–0.91; volume: ICC; 0.92–0.95) and lipid-rich necrotic core (LRNC) (area: ICC; 0.78–0.82; volume: ICC; 0.84–0.86). For compositional changes, agreement was good for CA volume change (ICC; 0.78) and moderate for LRNC volume change (ICC; 0.49). Factors associated with LRNC progression as detected by MEPPS review included in...
Source: The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging - Category: Radiology Source Type: research