TY - JOUR A1 - Kofler, Andreas A1 - Wald, Christian A1 - Kolbitsch, Christoph A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph A1 - Ambellan, Felix T1 - Joint Reconstruction and Segmentation in Undersampled 3D Knee MRI combining Shape Knowledge and Deep Learning JF - Physics in Medicine and Biology N2 - Task-adapted image reconstruction methods using end-to-end trainable neural networks (NNs) have been proposed to optimize reconstruction for subsequent processing tasks, such as segmentation. However, their training typically requires considerable hardware resources and thus, only relatively simple building blocks, e.g. U-Nets, are typically used, which, albeit powerful, do not integrate model-specific knowledge. In this work, we extend an end-to-end trainable task-adapted image reconstruction method for a clinically realistic reconstruction and segmentation problem of bone and cartilage in 3D knee MRI by incorporating statistical shape models (SSMs). The SSMs model the prior information and help to regularize the segmentation maps as a final post-processing step. We compare the proposed method to a state-of-the-art (SOTA) simultaneous multitask learning approach for image reconstruction and segmentation (MTL) and to a complex SSMs-informed segmentation pipeline (SIS). Our experiments show that the combination of joint end-to-end training and SSMs to further regularize the segmentation maps obtained by MTL highly improves the results, especially in terms of mean and maximal surface errors. In particular, we achieve the segmentation quality of SIS and, at the same time, a substantial model reduction that yields a five-fold decimation in model parameters and a computational speedup of an order of magnitude. Remarkably, even for undersampling factors of up to R=8, the obtained segmentation maps are of comparable quality to those obtained by SIS from ground-truth images. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ad3797 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Navayazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Sasaki Metric for Spline Models of Manifold-Valued Trajectories JF - Computer Aided Geometric Design N2 - We propose a generic spatiotemporal framework to analyze manifold-valued measurements, which allows for employing an intrinsic and computationally efficient Riemannian hierarchical model. Particularly, utilizing regression, we represent discrete trajectories in a Riemannian manifold by composite Bézier splines, propose a natural metric induced by the Sasaki metric to compare the trajectories, and estimate average trajectories as group-wise trends. We evaluate our framework in comparison to state-of-the-art methods within qualitative and quantitative experiments on hurricane tracks. Notably, our results demonstrate the superiority of spline-based approaches for an intensity classification of the tracks. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cagd.2023.102220 VL - 104 SP - 102220 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Myers, Adele A1 - Utpala, Saiteja A1 - Talbar, Shubham A1 - Sanborn, Sophia A1 - Shewmake, Christian A1 - Donnat, Claire A1 - Mathe, Johan A1 - Lupo, Umberto A1 - Sonthalia, Rishi A1 - Cui, Xinyue A1 - Szwagier, Tom A1 - Pignet, Arthur A1 - Bergsson, Andri A1 - Hauberg, Søren A1 - Nielsen, Dmitriy A1 - Sommer, Stefan A1 - Klindt, David A1 - Hermansen, Erik A1 - Vaupel, Melvin A1 - Dunn, Benjamin A1 - Xiong, Jeffrey A1 - Aharony, Noga A1 - Pe’er, Itsik A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Navayazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Tycowicz, Christoph von A1 - Miolane, Nina T1 - ICLR 2022 Challenge for Computational Geomerty & Topology: Design and Results T2 - Proceedings of Topology, Algebra, and Geometry in Learning Y1 - 2022 VL - 196 SP - 269 EP - 276 PB - PMLR ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lüdke, David A1 - Amiranashvili, Tamaz A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Ezhov, Ivan A1 - Menze, Bjoern A1 - Zachow, Stefan T1 - Landmark-free Statistical Shape Modeling via Neural Flow Deformations T2 - Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention - MICCAI 2022 N2 - Statistical shape modeling aims at capturing shape variations of an anatomical structure that occur within a given population. Shape models are employed in many tasks, such as shape reconstruction and image segmentation, but also shape generation and classification. Existing shape priors either require dense correspondence between training examples or lack robustness and topological guarantees. We present FlowSSM, a novel shape modeling approach that learns shape variability without requiring dense correspondence between training instances. It relies on a hierarchy of continuous deformation flows, which are parametrized by a neural network. Our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods in providing an expressive and robust shape prior for distal femur and liver. We show that the emerging latent representation is discriminative by separating healthy from pathological shapes. Ultimately, we demonstrate its effectiveness on two shape reconstruction tasks from partial data. Our source code is publicly available (https://github.com/davecasp/flowssm). Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16434-7_44 VL - 13432 PB - Springer, Cham ER - TY - THES A1 - Ambellan, Felix T1 - Efficient Riemannian Statistical Shape Analysis with Applications in Disease Assessment N2 - In this work, we address the challenge of developing statistical shape models that account for the non-Euclidean nature inherent to (anatomical) shape variation and at the same time offer fast, numerically robust processing and as much invariance as possible regarding translation and rotation, i.e. Euclidean motion. With the aim of doing that we formulate a continuous and physically motivated notion of shape space based on deformation gradients. We follow two different tracks endowing this differential representation with a Riemannian structure to establish a statistical shape model. (1) We derive a model based on differential coordinates as elements in GL(3)+. To this end, we adapt the notion of bi-invariant means employing an affine connection structure on GL(3)+. Furthermore, we perform second-order statistics based on a family of Riemannian metrics providing the most possible invariance, viz. GL(3)+-left-invariance and O(3)-right-invariance. (2) We endow the differential coordinates with a non-Euclidean structure, that stems from a product Lie group of stretches and rotations. This structure admits a bi-invariant metric and thus allows for a consistent analysis via manifold-valued Riemannian statistics. This work further presents a novel shape representation based on discrete fundamental forms that is naturally invariant under Euclidean motion, namely the fundamental coordinates. We endow this representation with a Lie group structure that admits bi-invariant metrics and therefore allows for consistent analysis using manifold-valued statistics based on the Riemannian framework. Furthermore, we derive a simple, efficient, robust, yet accurate (i.e. without resorting to model approximations) solver for the inverse problem that allows for interactive applications. Beyond statistical shape modeling the proposed framework is amenable for surface processing such as quasi-isometric flattening. Additionally, the last part of the thesis aims on shape-based, continuous disease stratification to provide means that objectify disease assessment over the current clinical practice of ordinal grading systems. Therefore, we derive the geodesic B-score, a generalization of the of the Euclidean B-score, in order to assess knee osteoarthritis. In this context we present a Newton-type fixed point iteration for projection onto geodesics in shape space. On the application side, we show that the derived geodesic B-score features, in comparison to its Euclidean counterpart, an improved predictive performance on assessing the risk of total knee replacement surgery. Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-refubium-37016-3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Glatzeder, Korbinian A1 - Komnik, Igor A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - Potthast, Wolfgang T1 - Dynamic pressure analysis of novel interpositional knee spacer implants in 3D-printed human knee models JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Alternative treatment methods for knee osteoarthritis (OA) are in demand, to delay the young (< 50 Years) patient’s need for osteotomy or knee replacement. Novel interpositional knee spacers shape based on statistical shape model (SSM) approach and made of polyurethane (PU) were developed to present a minimally invasive method to treat medial OA in the knee. The implant should be supposed to reduce peak strains and pain, restore the stability of the knee, correct the malalignment of a varus knee and improve joint function and gait. Firstly, the spacers were tested in artificial knee models. It is assumed that by application of a spacer, a significant reduction in stress values and a significant increase in the contact area in the medial compartment of the knee will be registered. Biomechanical analysis of the effect of novel interpositional knee spacer implants on pressure distribution in 3D-printed knee model replicas: the primary purpose was the medial joint contact stress-related biomechanics. A secondary purpose was a better understanding of medial/lateral redistribution of joint loading. Six 3D printed knee models were reproduced from cadaveric leg computed tomography. Each of four spacer implants was tested in each knee geometry under realistic arthrokinematic dynamic loading conditions, to examine the pressure distribution in the knee joint. All spacers showed reduced mean stress values by 84–88% and peak stress values by 524–704% in the medial knee joint compartment compared to the non-spacer test condition. The contact area was enlarged by 462–627% as a result of the inserted spacers. Concerning the appreciable contact stress reduction and enlargement of the contact area in the medial knee joint compartment, the premises are in place for testing the implants directly on human knee cadavers to gain further insights into a possible tool for treating medial knee osteoarthritis. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20463-6 VL - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caputo, Ariel A1 - Emporio, Marco A1 - Giachetti, Andrea A1 - Cristani, Marco A1 - Borghi, Guido A1 - D'Eusanio, Andrea A1 - Le, Minh-Quan A1 - Nguyen, Hai-Dang A1 - Tran, Minh-Triet A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Navayazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Tycowicz, Christoph von T1 - SHREC 2022 Track on Online Detection of Heterogeneous Gestures JF - Computers and Graphics N2 - This paper presents the outcomes of a contest organized to evaluate methods for the online recognition of heterogeneous gestures from sequences of 3D hand poses. The task is the detection of gestures belonging to a dictionary of 16 classes characterized by different pose and motion features. The dataset features continuous sequences of hand tracking data where the gestures are interleaved with non-significant motions. The data have been captured using the Hololens 2 finger tracking system in a realistic use-case of mixed reality interaction. The evaluation is based not only on the detection performances but also on the latency and the false positives, making it possible to understand the feasibility of practical interaction tools based on the algorithms proposed. The outcomes of the contest's evaluation demonstrate the necessity of further research to reduce recognition errors, while the computational cost of the algorithms proposed is sufficiently low. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2022.07.015 VL - 107 SP - 241 EP - 251 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mayer, Julius A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Soft-Correspondence Approach to Shape-based Disease Grading with Graph Convolutional Networks T2 - Proceedings of Machine Learning Research N2 - Shape analysis provides principled means for understanding anatomical structures from medical images. The underlying notions of shape spaces, however, come with strict assumptions prohibiting the analysis of incomplete and/or topologically varying shapes. This work aims to alleviate these limitations by adapting the concept of soft correspondences. In particular, we present a graph-based learning approach for morphometric classification of disease states that is based on a generalized notion of shape correspondences in terms of functional maps. We demonstrate the performance of the derived classifier on the open-access ADNI database for differentiating normal controls and subjects with Alzheimer’s disease. Notably, our experiment shows that our approach can improve over state-of-the-art from geometric deep learning. Y1 - 2022 VL - 194 SP - 85 EP - 95 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Rigid Motion Invariant Statistical Shape Modeling based on Discrete Fundamental Forms JF - Medical Image Analysis N2 - We present a novel approach for nonlinear statistical shape modeling that is invariant under Euclidean motion and thus alignment-free. By analyzing metric distortion and curvature of shapes as elements of Lie groups in a consistent Riemannian setting, we construct a framework that reliably handles large deformations. Due to the explicit character of Lie group operations, our non-Euclidean method is very efficient allowing for fast and numerically robust processing. This facilitates Riemannian analysis of large shape populations accessible through longitudinal and multi-site imaging studies providing increased statistical power. Additionally, as planar configurations form a submanifold in shape space, our representation allows for effective estimation of quasi-isometric surfaces flattenings. We evaluate the performance of our model w.r.t. shape-based classification of hippocampus and femur malformations due to Alzheimer's disease and osteoarthritis, respectively. In particular, we achieve state-of-the-art accuracies outperforming the standard Euclidean as well as a recent nonlinear approach especially in presence of sparse training data. To provide insight into the model's ability of capturing biological shape variability, we carry out an analysis of specificity and generalization ability. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102178 VL - 73 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Geodesic B-Score for Improved Assessment of Knee Osteoarthritis T2 - Proc. Information Processing in Medical Imaging (IPMI) N2 - Three-dimensional medical imaging enables detailed understanding of osteoarthritis structural status. However, there remains a vast need for automatic, thus, reader-independent measures that provide reliable assessment of subject-specific clinical outcomes. To this end, we derive a consistent generalization of the recently proposed B-score to Riemannian shape spaces. We further present an algorithmic treatment yielding simple, yet efficient computations allowing for analysis of large shape populations with several thousand samples. Our intrinsic formulation exhibits improved discrimination ability over its Euclidean counterpart, which we demonstrate for predictive validity on assessing risks of total knee replacement. This result highlights the potential of the geodesic B-score to enable improved personalized assessment and stratification for interventions. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78191-0_14 SP - 177 EP - 188 ER -