Optimizing anterior urethral stricture assessment: leveraging AI-assisted three-dimensional sonourethrography in clinical practice.
Int Urol Nephrol
; 2024 Jul 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38955940
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
This investigation sought to validate the clinical precision and practical applicability of AI-enhanced three-dimensional sonographic imaging for the identification of anterior urethral stricture.METHODS:
The study enrolled 63 male patients with diagnosed anterior urethral strictures alongside 10 healthy volunteers to serve as controls. The imaging protocol utilized a high-frequency 3D ultrasound system combined with a linear stepper motor, which enabled precise and rapid image acquisition. For image analysis, an advanced AI-based segmentation process using a modified U-net algorithm was implemented to perform real-time, high-resolution segmentation and three-dimensional reconstruction of the urethra. A comparative analysis was performed against the surgically measured stricture lengths. Spearman's correlation analysis was executed to assess the findings.RESULTS:
The AI model completed the entire processing sequence, encompassing recognition, segmentation, and reconstruction, within approximately 5 min. The mean intraoperative length of urethral stricture was determined to be 14.4 ± 8.4 mm. Notably, the mean lengths of the urethral strictures reconstructed by manual and AI models were 13.1 ± 7.5 mm and 13.4 ± 7.2 mm, respectively. Interestingly, no statistically significant disparity in urethral stricture length between manually reconstructed and AI-reconstructed images was observed. Spearman's correlation analysis underscored a more robust association of AI-reconstructed images with intraoperative urethral stricture length than manually reconstructed 3D images (0.870 vs. 0.820). Furthermore, AI-reconstructed images provided detailed views of the corpus spongiosum fibrosis from multiple perspectives.CONCLUSIONS:
The research heralds the inception of an innovative, efficient AI-driven sonographic approach for three-dimensional visualization of urethral strictures, substantiating its viability and superiority in clinical application.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Int Urol Nephrol
/
Int. urol. nephrol
/
International urology and nephrology
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
Países Bajos