TY - JOUR
T1 - Automatic segmentation of cardiac substructures from noncontrast CT images
T2 - accurate enough for dosimetric analysis?
AU - Luo, Yangkun
AU - Xu, Yujin
AU - Liao, Zhongxing
AU - Gomez, Daniel
AU - Wang, Jingqian
AU - Jiang, Wei
AU - Zhou, Rongrong
AU - Williamson, Ryan
AU - Court, Laurence E.
AU - Yang, Jinzhong
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Institutional Research Grant (IRG) Program and MD Anderson Cancer Center support Grant CA016672
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Acta Oncologica Foundation.
PY - 2019/1/2
Y1 - 2019/1/2
N2 - Purpose: We evaluated the feasibility of using an automatic segmentation tool to delineate cardiac substructures from noncontrast computed tomography (CT) images for cardiac dosimetry and toxicity analyses for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after radiotherapy. Material and methods: We used an in-house developed multi-atlas segmentation tool to delineate 11cardiac substructures, including the whole heart, four heart chambers, and six greater vessels, automatically from the averaged 4D-CT planning images of 49 patients with NSCLC. Two experienced radiation oncologists edited the auto-segmented contours. Times for automatic segmentation and modification were recorded. The modified contours were compared with the auto-segmented contours in terms of Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and mean surface distance (MSD) to evaluate the extent of modification. Differences in dose–volume histogram (DVH) characteristics were also evaluated for the modified versus auto-segmented contours. Results: The mean automatic segmentation time for all 11 structures was 7–9 min. For the 49 patients, the mean DSC values (±SD) ranged from.73 ±.08 to.95 ±.04, and the mean MSD values ranged from 1.3 ±.6 mm to 2.9 ± 5.1 mm. Overall, the modifications were small; the largest modifications were in the pulmonary vein and the inferior vena cava. The heart V30 (volume receiving dose ≥30 Gy) and the mean dose to the whole heart and the four heart chambers were not different for the modified versus the auto-segmented contours based on the statistically significant condition of p <.05. Also, the maximum dose to the great vessels was no different except for the pulmonary vein. Conclusions: Automatic segmentation of cardiac substructures did not require substantial modifications. Dosimetric evaluation showed no significant difference between the auto-segmented and modified contours for most structures, which suggests that the auto-segmented contours can be used to study cardiac dose–responses in clinical practice.
AB - Purpose: We evaluated the feasibility of using an automatic segmentation tool to delineate cardiac substructures from noncontrast computed tomography (CT) images for cardiac dosimetry and toxicity analyses for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after radiotherapy. Material and methods: We used an in-house developed multi-atlas segmentation tool to delineate 11cardiac substructures, including the whole heart, four heart chambers, and six greater vessels, automatically from the averaged 4D-CT planning images of 49 patients with NSCLC. Two experienced radiation oncologists edited the auto-segmented contours. Times for automatic segmentation and modification were recorded. The modified contours were compared with the auto-segmented contours in terms of Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and mean surface distance (MSD) to evaluate the extent of modification. Differences in dose–volume histogram (DVH) characteristics were also evaluated for the modified versus auto-segmented contours. Results: The mean automatic segmentation time for all 11 structures was 7–9 min. For the 49 patients, the mean DSC values (±SD) ranged from.73 ±.08 to.95 ±.04, and the mean MSD values ranged from 1.3 ±.6 mm to 2.9 ± 5.1 mm. Overall, the modifications were small; the largest modifications were in the pulmonary vein and the inferior vena cava. The heart V30 (volume receiving dose ≥30 Gy) and the mean dose to the whole heart and the four heart chambers were not different for the modified versus the auto-segmented contours based on the statistically significant condition of p <.05. Also, the maximum dose to the great vessels was no different except for the pulmonary vein. Conclusions: Automatic segmentation of cardiac substructures did not require substantial modifications. Dosimetric evaluation showed no significant difference between the auto-segmented and modified contours for most structures, which suggests that the auto-segmented contours can be used to study cardiac dose–responses in clinical practice.
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U2 - 10.1080/0284186X.2018.1521985
DO - 10.1080/0284186X.2018.1521985
M3 - Article
C2 - 30306817
AN - SCOPUS:85054851654
SN - 0284-186X
VL - 58
SP - 81
EP - 87
JO - Acta Oncologica
JF - Acta Oncologica
IS - 1
ER -