Precise ablation zone segmentation on CT images after liver cancer ablation using semi-automatic CNN-based segmentation.

BACKGROUND: Ablation zone segmentation in contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) images enables the quantitative assessment of treatment success in the ablation of liver lesions. However, fully automatic liver ablation zone segmentation in CT images still remains challenging, such as low accuracy and time-consuming manual refinement of the incorrect regions. PURPOSE: Therefore, in this study, we developed a semi-automatic technique to address the remaining drawbacks and improve the accuracy of the liver ablation zone segmentation in the CT images. METHODS: Our approach uses a combination of a CNN-based automatic segmentation method and an interactive CNN-based segmentation method. First, automatic segmentation is applied for coarse ablation zone segmentation in the whole CT image. Human experts then visually validate the segmentation results. If there are errors in the coarse segmentation, local corrections can be performed on each slice via an interactive CNN-based segmentation method. The models were trained and the proposed method was evaluated using two internal datasets of post-interventional CECT images ( n 1 $n_{1}$ = 22, n 2 $n_{2}$ = 145; 62 patients in total) and then further tested using an external benchmark dataset ( n 3 $n_{3}$ = 12; 10 patients). RESULTS: To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed approach, we used Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), Hausdorff distance (HD), and volume difference (VD). The quantitative evaluation results show that the proposed approach obtained mean DSC, ASSD, HD, and VD scores of 94.0%, 0.4 mm, 8.4 mm, 0.02, respectively, on the internal dataset, and 87.8%, 0.9 mm, 9.5 mm, and -0.03, respectively, on the benchmark dataset. We also compared the performance of the proposed approach to that of five well-known segmentation methods; the proposed semi-automatic method achieved state-of-the-art performance on ablation segmentation accuracy, and on average, 2 min are required to correct the segmentation. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy of the proposed method on the benchmark dataset is comparable to that of manual segmentation by human experts ( p $p$ = 0.55, t $t$ -test). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed semi-automatic CNN-based segmentation method can be used to effectively segment the ablation zones, increasing the value of CECT for an assessment of treatment success. For reproducibility, the trained models, source code, and demonstration tool are publicly available at https://github.com/lqanh11/Interactive_AblationZone_Segmentation.

An experience in prenatal diagnosis via QF-PCR of a female child with a 9.9 Mb pure deletion at 18p11.32-11.22.

Quantitative Fluorescent - Polymerase Chain Reaction (QF-PCR) is a rapid prenatal diagnosis test for 21, 18, 13 and sex chromosomal aneuploidy detection. However, it could not detect partial trisomy or partial monosomy of those chromosomes. Here, we report a 19-month-old Vietnamese female with a 9.9 Mb pure deletion of chromosome 18 at 18p11.32-11.22 confirmed by next generation sequencing. The patient was short statured with facial dysmorphic features as well as motor skill and speech delays. First trimester screening showed high risk of trisomy 21 with only increased nuchal translucency (NT 3.9 mm) by ultrasound as an indication. Prenatal diagnosis by QF-PCR from amniotic DNA revealed normal disomy. Noticeably, two short tandem repeat (STR) markers D18S391 and D18S976 located on 18p exhibited uninformative patterns (one peak). Thus, our case suggested that the combination of both D18S391 and D18S976 markers with uninformative patterns in QF-PCR for prenatal diagnosis and increased NT in the first trimester ultrasound may be a significant indication of 18p monosomy.

Intrahepatic lymphatic channel sclerotic embolization for treatment of postoperative lymphatic ascites: a report of 3 cases.

Postoperative hepatic lymphorrhea is extremely rare and there is no standard treatment for this condition. We report the cases of 3 men, 32-, 56-, and 37-year-old, with postoperative hepatic lymphorrhea, which was refractory to conservative treatment. Transhepatic lymphangiography allowed locating the lymphatic leak and treating it with hepatic lymphatic vessels injection of foam sclerotic agent. This technique seems efficient and safe.

An uncommon therapeutic option for a challenging cause of pleural effusion.

Can you diagnose this challenging cause of pleural effusion? http://bit.ly/2VVwZv3.