Multi-Atlas Segmentation with Joint Label Fusion of Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures on CT

摘要

The precise and accurate segmentation of the vertebral column is essential inthe diagnosis and treatment of various orthopedic, neurological, andoncological traumas and pathologies. Segmentation is especially challenging inthe presence of pathology such as vertebral compression fractures. In thispaper, we propose a method to produce segmentations for osteoporoticcompression fractured vertebrae by applying a multi-atlas joint label fusiontechnique for clinical CT images. A total of 170 thoracic and lumbar vertebraewere evaluated using atlases from five patients with varying degrees of spinaldegeneration. In an osteoporotic cohort of bundled atlases, registrationprovided an average Dice coefficient and mean absolute surface distance of2.7$\pm$4.5% and 0.32$\pm$0.13mm for osteoporotic vertebrae, respectively, and90.9$\pm$3.0% and 0.36$\pm$0.11mm for compression fractured vertebrae.