Fully Automatic White Matter Hyperintensity Segmentation using U-net and Skip Connection

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2019 Jul:2019:974-977. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2019.8856913.

Abstract

White matter hyperintensity (WMH) is associated with various aging and neurodegenerative diseases. In this paper, we proposed and validated a fully automatic system which integrated classical image processing and deep neural network for segmenting WMH from fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T1-weighed magnetic resonance (MR) images. A novel skip connection U-net (SC U-net) was proposed and compared with the classical U-net. Experiments were performed on a dataset of 60 images, acquired from three different scanners. Validation analysis and cross-scanner testing were conducted. Compared with U-net, the proposed SC U-net had a faster convergence and higher segmentation accuracy. The software environment and models of the proposed system were made publicly accessible at Dockerhub.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • White Matter*