Automatic segmentation of abdominal organs and adipose tissue compartments in water-fat MRI: Application to weight-loss in obesity

作者：Shen Jun; Baum Thomas; Cordes Christian; Ott Beate; Skurk Thomas; Kooijman Hendrik; Rummeny Ernst J; Hauner Hans; Menze Bjoern H; Karampinos Dimitrios C^*

来源：European Journal of Radiology, 2016, 85(9): 1613-1621.

DOI：10.1016/j.ejrad.2016.06.006

• Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT)
• Visceral adipose tissue (VAT)
• Automatic image segmentation
• Water-fat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Weight loss

Purpose: To develop a fully automatic algorithm for abdominal organs and adipose tissue compartments segmentation and to assess organ and adipose tissue volume changes in longitudinal water-fat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.
Materials and methods: Axial two-point Dixon images were acquired in 20 obese women (age range 24-65, BMI 34.9 +/- 3.8 kg/m(2)) before and after a four-week calorie restriction. Abdominal organs, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) compartments (abdominal, anterior, posterior), SAT regions along the feet-head direction and regional visceral adipose tissue (VAT) were assessed by a fully automatic algorithm using morphological operations and a multi-atlas-based segmentation method.
Results: The accuracy of organ segmentation represented by Dice coefficients ranged from 0.672 +/- 0.155 for the pancreas to 0.943 +/- 0.023 for the liver. Abdominal SAT changes were significantly greater in the posterior than the anterior SAT compartment (-11.4% +/- 5.1% versus -9.5% +/- 6.3%, p <0.001). The loss of VAT that was not located around any organ ( -16.1% +/- 8.9%) was significantly greater than the loss of VAT 5 cm around liver, left and right kidney, spleen, and pancreas (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The presented fully automatic algorithm showed good performance in abdominal adipose tissue and organ segmentation, and allowed the detection of SAT and VAT subcompartments changes during weight loss.

• 出版日期2016-9