Dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography diagnosis of primary liver cancers using transfer learning of pretrained convolutional neural network...

A new interesting article has been published in Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2019 Aug;14(8):1295-1301. doi: 10.1007/s11548-019-01987-1. Epub 2019 May 3. and titled:

Dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography diagnosis of primary liver cancers using transfer learning of pretrained convolutional neural network…

Authors of this article are:

Yamada A, Oyama K, Fujita S, Yoshizawa E, Ichinohe F, Komatsu D, Fujinaga Y.

A summary of the article is shown below:

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of image registration on the diagnostic performance of transfer learning (TL) using pretrained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and three-phasic dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (DCE-CT) for primary liver cancers.METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 215 consecutive patients with histologically proven primary liver cancers, including six early, 58 well-differentiated, 109 moderately differentiated, 29 poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), and 13 non-HCC malignant lesions containing cholangiocellular components. We performed TL using various pretrained CNNs and preoperative three-phasic DCE-CT images. Three-phasic DCE-CT images were manually registered to correct respiratory motion. The registered DCE-CT images were then assigned to the three color channels of an input image for TL: pre-contrast, early phase, and delayed phase images for the blue, red, and green channels, respectively. To evaluate the effects of image registration, the registered input image was intentionally misaligned in the three color channels by pixel shifts, rotations, and skews with various degrees. The diagnostic performances (DP) of the pretrained CNNs after TL in the test set were compared by three general radiologists (GRs) and two experienced abdominal radiologists (ARs). The effects of misalignment in the input image and the type of pretrained CNN on the DP were statistically evaluated.RESULTS: The mean DPs for histological subtype classification and differentiation in primary malignant liver tumors on DCE-CT for GR and AR were 39.1%, and 47.9%, respectively. The highest mean DPs for CNNs after TL with pixel shifts, rotations, and skew misalignments were 44.1%, 44.2%, and 43.7%, respectively. Two-way analysis of variance revealed that the DP is significantly affected by the type of pretrained CNN (P = 0.0001), but not by misalignments in input images other than skew deformations.CONCLUSION: TL using pretrained CNNs is robust against misregistration of multiphasic images and comparable to experienced ARs in classifying primary liver cancers using three-phasic DCE-CT.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Convolutional neural network;Dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography;Primary liver cancer;Registration;Transfer learning.

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