A regression framework to head-circumference delineation from US fetal images
share
Background and Objectives Measuring head-circumference (HC) length from ultrasound inter-operator variability in HC length measuring, several computer-assisted solutions have been proposed in the years. Recently, a large number of deep-learning approaches is addressing the problem of HC delineation through the segmentation of the whole fetal head via convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Since the task is a edge-delineation problem, we propose a different strategy based on regression CNNs. Methods The proposed framework consists of a region-proposal CNN for head localization and centering, and a regression CNN for accurately delineate the HC. The first CNN is trained exploiting transfer learning, while we propose a training strategy for the regression CNN based on distance fields. Results The framework was tested on the HC18 Challenge dataset, which consists of 999 training and 335 testing images. A mean absolute difference of 1.90 (± 1.76) mm and a Dice similarity coefficient of 97.75 (± 1.32) % were achieved, overcoming approaches in the literature. Conclusions The experimental results showed the effectiveness of the proposed framework, proving its potential in supporting clinicians during the clinical practice.
READ FULL TEXT