Automatic MRI segmentation of para-pharyngeal fat pads using interactive visual feature space analysis for classification

Abstract

BackgroundObstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a public health problem. Detailed analysis of the para-pharyngeal fat pads can help us to understand the pathogenesis of OSA and may mediate the intervention of this sleeping disorder. A reliable and automatic para-pharyngeal fat pads segmentation technique plays a vital role in investigating larger data bases to identify the anatomic risk factors for the OSA.MethodsOur research aims to develop a context-based automatic segmentation algorithm to delineate the fat pads from magnetic resonance images in a population-based study. Our segmentation pipeline involves texture analysis, connected component analysis, object-based image analysis, and supervised classification using an interactive visual analysis tool to segregate fat pads from other structures automatically.ResultsWe developed a fully automatic segmentation technique that does not need any user interaction to extract fat pads. Our algorithm is fast enough that we can apply it to population-based epidemiological studies that provide a large amount of data. We evaluated our approach qualitatively on thirty datasets and quantitatively against the ground truths of ten datasets resulting in an average of approximately 78% detected volume fraction and a 79% Dice coefficient, which is within the range of the inter-observer variation of manual segmentation results.ConclusionThe suggested method produces sufficiently accurate results and has potential to be applied for the study of large data to understand the pathogenesis of the OSA syndrome.

Effect of continuous positive airway pressure therapy on inflammatory cytokines and atherosclerosis in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

“…Adequate CPAP treatment can increase pulmonary ventilation and ameliorate the inflammation of arteries in patients with OSAS (9). Patients show improvements in blood oxygen concentration on the first day following CPAP treatment, and further benefits are observed during an extended course of treatment (10). The molecular and immunological mechanisms underlying this type of therapy are a major concern when selecting CPAP in patients with OSAS.…”

Open-Nasality and Eustachian tube Dysfunction After Acute Weight Loss in Bariatric Surgery

“…Bariatric surgeries are associated with anatomical changes in the body due to weight loss. Studies [3,4,5] suggested changes in upper airway dimensions and decrease parapharyngeal pad of fat in obese subjects after acute weight loss.…”

“…Shahid et al, [3] studied the effect of weight loss on the pharynx dimensions. They examined the patients (after weight loss) by a low-dose CT scan of the upper airway using a 16-slice scanner.…”

Interactive visual analytics tool for multidimensional quantitative and categorical data analysis

“…In addition to polysomnography, magnetic resonance images are also obtained to analyze upper airway anatomy. The segmentation algorithm proposed by Shahid et al 41 is applied on more than 400 images to extract different biomedical features from the images. In total, we get more than 50 quantitative and categorical features to analyze and study the pathogenesis of OSA.…”