Combining Deep Learning and Radiomics for Automated, Objective, Comprehensive Bone Mineral Density Assessment From Low-Dose Chest Computed Tomography

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: To develop an intelligent diagnostic model for osteoporosis screening based on low-dose chest computed tomography (LDCT). The model incorporates automatic deep-learning thoracic vertebrae of cancellous bone (TVCB) segmentation model and radiomics analysis.

Materials and methods: A total of 442 participants who underwent both LDCT and quantitative computed tomography (QCT) examinations were enrolled and were randomly allocated to the training, internal testing, and external testing cohorts. The TVCB automatic segmentation model was trained using VB-Net. The accuracy of the segmentation was evaluated using the Dice coefficient. Predictive models for assessing bone mineral density (BMD) were constructed utilizing radiomics analysis based on automatic segmentation (ASeg model) and manual segmentation (MSeg model), respectively. The BMD predictive model based on ASeg and MSeg included the identification of normal and abnormal BMD (first-level model), and osteopenia and osteoporosis (second-level model). The diagnostic performance of the radiomics models were evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity.

Results: The Dice coefficients of the TVCB segmentation model in the internal and external testing cohorts were found to be 0.988 ± 0.014 and 0.939 ± 0.034, respectively. In the first-level model, the AUC of the ASeg model exhibited comparable performance to that of the MSeg model for both the internal (0.985 vs. 0.946, P = 0.080) and external (0.965 vs. 0.955, P = 0.724) testing cohorts. Similarly, in the second-level model, the AUC of the ASeg model was found to be comparable to that of the MSeg model for both the internal (0.933 vs. 0.920, P = 0.794) and external (0.907 vs. 0.892, P = 0.805) testing cohorts.

Conclusion: A fully automated pipeline for TVCB segmentation and BMD assessment with radiomics analysis can be used for opportunistic BMD screening in chest LDCT.

Keywords: Bone mineral density; Deep learning; Osteoporosis; Radiomics; Screening.