Multi-channel MRI segmentation of eye structures and tumors using patient-specific features

PLoS One. 2017 Mar 28;12(3):e0173900. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173900. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Retinoblastoma and uveal melanoma are fast spreading eye tumors usually diagnosed by using 2D Fundus Image Photography (Fundus) and 2D Ultrasound (US). Diagnosis and treatment planning of such diseases often require additional complementary imaging to confirm the tumor extend via 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In this context, having automatic segmentations to estimate the size and the distribution of the pathological tissue would be advantageous towards tumor characterization. Until now, the alternative has been the manual delineation of eye structures, a rather time consuming and error-prone task, to be conducted in multiple MRI sequences simultaneously. This situation, and the lack of tools for accurate eye MRI analysis, reduces the interest in MRI beyond the qualitative evaluation of the optic nerve invasion and the confirmation of recurrent malignancies below calcified tumors. In this manuscript, we propose a new framework for the automatic segmentation of eye structures and ocular tumors in multi-sequence MRI. Our key contribution is the introduction of a pathological eye model from which Eye Patient-Specific Features (EPSF) can be computed. These features combine intensity and shape information of pathological tissue while embedded in healthy structures of the eye. We assess our work on a dataset of pathological patient eyes by computing the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of the sclera, the cornea, the vitreous humor, the lens and the tumor. In addition, we quantitatively show the superior performance of our pathological eye model as compared to the segmentation obtained by using a healthy model (over 4% DSC) and demonstrate the relevance of our EPSF, which improve the final segmentation regardless of the classifier employed.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cornea / anatomy & histology
  • Cornea / diagnostic imaging
  • Eye / anatomy & histology
  • Eye / diagnostic imaging*
  • Eye Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Eye Neoplasms / pathology
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Lens, Crystalline / diagnostic imaging
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Models, Anatomic
  • Sclera / anatomy & histology
  • Sclera / diagnostic imaging
  • Vitreous Body / anatomy & histology
  • Vitreous Body / diagnostic imaging

Grants and funding

This work is supported by a grant from the Swiss Cancer League (KFS-2937-02-2012). This work is supported by a Doc.Mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) with number P1LAP3-161995. This work is supported by a grant from the Hasler Stiftung (15041). This work is also supported by the Centre d’Imagerie BioMédicale (CIBM) of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Geneva (UniGe), the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève (HUG), the University of Bern (UniBe) and the Leenaards and the Jeantet Foundations.