Lumbar disk 3D modeling from limited number of MRI axial slices

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of clinical MRI analysis in the field of lumbar intervertebral disk herniation diagnosis. It discusses the possibility of assisting radiologists in reading the patients MRI images by constructing a 3D model for the region of interest using simple computer vision methods. We use axial MRI slices of the lumbar area. The proposed framework works with a very small number of MRI slices and goes through three main stages. Namely, the region of interest extraction and enhancement, inter-slice interpolation, and 3D model construction. We use the Marching Cubes algorithm to construct the 3D model of the the region of interest. The validation of our 3D models is based on a radiologist’s analysis of the models. We tested the proposed 3D model construction on 83 cases and We have a 95% accuracy according to the radiologist evaluation. This study shows that 3D model construction can greatly ease the task of the radiologist which enhances the working experience. This leads eventually to more accurate and easy diagnosis process.

Improving radiologists’ and orthopedists’ QoE in diagnosing lumbar disk herniation using 3D modeling

“…In this work, we use the same dataset used in our recent work [19], which consists of axial T2 type MRI scans with only three scans taken per each disk (top, middle, and bottom). The area to be diagnosed in each slice can be represented by a line that lies between the posterior of the lumbar disk and the interior of the thecal sac.…”

“…These openings are called lateral neural foramen (NF) [23]. The anatomy of lumber disk and its peripheral is provided in our previous work [19]. In the case of disk herniation, the disk appears bulged out the NF fiber that reaches the posterior margin, which touches the thecal sac region.…”

“…In a recent work [19], we have successfully built a 3D model for lumbar intervertebral disks from a limited number of axial MRI images. The main aim of that study is to build a 3D model from a very limited number of axial MRI slices, as it is very hard to get more slices for that area.…”

“…Moreover, we used the resulting 3D model in visualizing the disk to assist the specialist in the manual diagnoses. In this paper, we expand this study by surveying the opinion of 14 radiologists and orthopedists with different levels of experience on using the 3D built-in [19] instead of using the MRI axial 2D scans. We also build an automated system that diagnoses the IDH automatically based on the 3D model.…”

“…We evaluate the effectiveness of increasing the specialists quality of experience using the image set collected in [19]- [22]. The specialists find it easier to make a diagnosis based only on the 3D model in 95% of the cases.…”