TY - GEN A1 - Tack, Alexander A1 - Shestakov, Alexey A1 - Lüdke, David A1 - Zachow, Stefan T1 - A deep multi-task learning method for detection of meniscal tears in MRI data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative database N2 - We present a novel and computationally efficient method for the detection of meniscal tears in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. Our method is based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that operates on a complete 3D MRI scan. Our approach detects the presence of meniscal tears in three anatomical sub-regions (anterior horn, meniscal body, posterior horn) for both the Medial Meniscus (MM) and the Lateral Meniscus (LM) individually. For optimal performance of our method, we investigate how to preprocess the MRI data or how to train the CNN such that only relevant information within a Region of Interest (RoI) of the data volume is taken into account for meniscal tear detection. We propose meniscal tear detection combined with a bounding box regressor in a multi-task deep learning framework to let the CNN implicitly consider the corresponding RoIs of the menisci. We evaluate the accuracy of our CNN-based meniscal tear detection approach on 2,399 Double Echo Steady-State (DESS) MRI scans from the Osteoarthritis Initiative database. In addition, to show that our method is capable of generalizing to other MRI sequences, we also adapt our model to Intermediate-Weighted Turbo Spin-Echo (IW TSE) MRI scans. To judge the quality of our approaches, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and Area Under the Curve (AUC) values are evaluated for both MRI sequences. For the detection of tears in DESS MRI, our method reaches AUC values of 0.94, 0.93, 0.93 (anterior horn, body, posterior horn) in MM and 0.96, 0.94, 0.91 in LM. For the detection of tears in IW TSE MRI data, our method yields AUC values of 0.84, 0.88, 0.86 in MM and 0.95, 0.91, 0.90 in LM. In conclusion, the presented method achieves high accuracy for detecting meniscal tears in both DESS and IW TSE MRI data. Furthermore, our method can be easily trained and applied to other MRI sequences. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-33 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-84415 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Geodesic B-Score for Improved Assessment of Knee Osteoarthritis 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. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-09 KW - Statistical shape analysis KW - Osteoarthritis KW - Geometric statistics KW - Riemannian manifolds Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-81930 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schotte, Merlind A1 - Chaumel, Júlia A1 - Dean, Mason N. A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Image analysis pipeline for segmentation of a biological porosity network, the lacuno-canalicular system in stingray tesserae N2 - A prerequisite for many analysis tasks in modern comparative biology is the segmentation of 3-dimensional (3D) images of the specimens being investigated (e.g. from microCT data). Depending on the specific imaging technique that was used to acquire the images and on the image resolution, different segmentation tools will be required. While some standard tools exist that can often be applied for specific subtasks, building whole processing pipelines solely from standard tools is often difficult. Some tasks may even necessitate the implementation of manual interaction tools to achieve a quality that is sufficient for the subsequent analysis. In this work, we present a pipeline of segmentation tools that can be used for the semi-automatic segmentation and quantitative analysis of voids in tissue (i.e. internal structural porosity). We use this pipeline to analyze lacuno-canalicular networks in stingray tesserae from 3D images acquired with synchrotron microCT. * The first step of this processing pipeline, the segmentation of the tesserae, was performed using standard marker-based watershed segmentation. The efficient processing of the next two steps, that is, the segmentation of all lacunae spaces belonging to a specific tessera and the separation of these spaces into individual lacunae required modern, recently developed tools. * For proofreading, we developed a graph-based interactive method that allowed us to quickly split lacunae that were accidentally merged, and to merge lacunae that were wrongly split. * Finally, the tesserae and their corresponding lacunae were subdivided into anatomical regions of interest (structural wedges) using a semi- manual approach. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-12 Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-78237 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ege, Yannic A1 - Foth, Christian A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Wirkner, Christian S. A1 - Richter, Stefan T1 - Making spherical-harmonics-based Geometric Morphometrics (SPHARM) approachable for 3D images containing large cavity openings using Ambient Occlusion - a study using hermit crab claw shape variability N2 - An advantageous property of mesh-based geometric morphometrics (GM) towards landmark-based approaches, is the possibility of precisely examining highly irregular shapes and highly topographic surfaces. In case of spherical-harmonics-based GM the main requirement is a completely closed mesh surface, which often is not given, especially when dealing with natural objects. Here we present a methodological workflow to prepare 3D segmentations containing large cavity openings for the conduction of spherical-harmonics-based GM. This will be exemplified with a case study on claws of hermit crabs (Paguroidea, Decapoda, Crustacea), whereby joint openings – between manus and “movable finger” – typify the large-cavity-opening problem. We found a methodology including an ambient-occlusion-based segmentation algorithm leading to results precise and suitable to study the inter- and intraspecific differences in shape of hermit crab claws. Statistical analyses showed a significant separation between all examined diogenid and pagurid claws, whereas the separation between all left and right claws did not show significance. Additionally, the procedure offers other benefits. It is easy to reproduce and creates sparse variance in the data, closures integrate smoothly into the total structures and the algorithm saves a significant amount of time. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-09 Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-77744 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Chaumel, Júlia A1 - Schotte, Merlind A1 - Bizzarro, Joseph J. A1 - Zaslansky, Paul A1 - Fratzl, Peter A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Dean, Mason N. T1 - Co-aligned chondrocytes: Zonal morphological variation and structured arrangement of cell lacunae in tessellated cartilage N2 - In most vertebrates the embryonic cartilaginous skeleton is replaced by bone during development. During this process, cartilage cells (chondrocytes) mineralize the extracellular matrix and undergo apoptosis, giving way to bone cells (osteocytes). In contrast, sharks and rays (elasmobranchs) have cartilaginous skeletons throughout life, where only the surface mineralizes, forming a layer of tiles (tesserae). Elasmobranch chondrocytes, unlike those of other vertebrates, survive cartilage mineralization and are maintained alive in spaces (lacunae) within tesserae. However, the function(s) of the chondrocytes in the mineralized tissue remain unknown. Applying a custom analysis workflow to high-resolution synchrotron microCT scans of tesserae, we characterize the morphologies and arrangements of stingray chondrocyte lacunae, using lacunar morphology as a proxy for chondrocyte morphology. We show that the cell density is comparable in unmineralized and mineralized tissue from our study species and that cells maintain the similar volume even when they have been incorporated into tesserae. This discovery supports previous hypotheses that elasmobranch chondrocytes, unlike those of other taxa, do not proliferate, hypertrophy or undergo apoptosis during mineralization. Tessera lacunae show zonal variation in their shapes—being flatter further from and more spherical closer to the unmineralized cartilage matrix and larger in the center of tesserae— and show pronounced organization into parallel layers and strong orientation toward neighboring tesserae. Tesserae also exhibit local variation in lacunar density, with the density considerably higher near pores passing through the tesseral layer, suggesting pores and cells interact (e.g. that pores contain a nutrient source). We hypothesize that the different lacunar types reflect the stages of the tesserae formation process, while also representing local variation in tissue architecture and cell function. Lacunae are linked by small passages (canaliculi) in the matrix to form elongate series at the tesseral periphery and tight clusters in the center of tesserae, creating a rich connectivity among cells. The network arrangement and the shape variation of chondrocytes in tesserae indicate that cells may interact within and between tesserae and manage mineralization differently from chondrocytes in other vertebrates, perhaps performing analogous roles to osteocytes in bone. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-04 Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-77087 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Buchmann, Jens A1 - Kaplan, Bernhard A1 - Powell, Samuel A1 - Prohaska, Steffen A1 - Laufer, Jan T1 - Quantitative PA tomography of high resolution 3-D images: experimental validation in tissue phantoms N2 - Quantitative photoacoustic tomography aims recover the spatial distribution of absolute chromophore concentrations and their ratios from deep tissue, high-resolution images. In this study, a model-based inversion scheme based on a Monte-Carlo light transport model is experimentally validated on 3-D multispectral images of a tissue phantom acquired using an all-optical scanner with a planar detection geometry. A calibrated absorber allowed scaling of the measured data during the inversion, while an acoustic correction method was employed to compensate the effects of limited view detection. Chromophore- and fluence-dependent step sizes and Adam optimization were implemented to achieve rapid convergence. High resolution 3-D maps of absolute concentrations and their ratios were recovered with high accuracy. Potential applications of this method include quantitative functional and molecular photoacoustic tomography of deep tissue in preclinical and clinical studies. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-60 KW - quantitative photoacoustic imaging KW - blood oxygen saturation KW - inverse problem KW - model-based inversion KW - Monte Carlo KW - spectral unmixing Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-75416 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindow, Norbert A1 - Brünig, Florian A1 - Dercksen, Vincent J. A1 - Fabig, Gunar A1 - Kiewisz, Robert A1 - Redemann, Stefanie A1 - Müller-Reichert, Thomas A1 - Prohaska, Steffen T1 - Semi-automatic Stitching of Serial Section Image Stacks with Filamentous Structures N2 - In this paper, we present a software-assisted workflow for the alignment and matching of filamentous structures across a stack of 3D serial image sections. This is achieved by a combination of automatic methods, visual validation, and interactive correction. After an initial alignment, the user can continuously improve the result by interactively correcting landmarks or matches of filaments. This is supported by a quality assessment that visualizes regions that have been already inspected and, thus, allows a trade-off between quality and manual labor. The software tool was developed in collaboration with biologists who investigate microtubule-based spindles during cell division. To quantitatively understand the structural organization of such spindles, a 3D reconstruction of the numerous microtubules is essential. Each spindle is cut into a series of semi-thick physical sections, of which electron tomograms are acquired. The sections then need to be stitched, i.e. non-rigidly aligned; and the microtubules need to be traced in each section and connected across section boundaries. Experiments led to the conclusion that automatic methods for stitching alone provide only an incomplete solution to practical analysis needs. Automatic methods may fail due to large physical distortions, a low signal-to-noise ratio of the images, or other unexpected experimental difficulties. In such situations, semi-automatic validation and correction is required to rescue as much information as possible to derive biologically meaningful results despite of some errors related to data collection. Since the correct stitching is visually not obvious due to the number of microtubules (up to 30k) and their dense spatial arrangement, these are difficult tasks. Furthermore, a naive inspection of each microtubule is too time consuming. In addition, interactive visualization is hampered by the size of the image data (up to 100 GB). Based on the requirements of our collaborators, we present a practical solution for the semi-automatic stitching of serial section image stacks with filamentous structures. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-30 Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-73739 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nava-Yazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Geodesic Mixed Effects Model in Kendall's Shape Space T2 - Proc. 7th MICCAI workshop on Mathematical Foundations of Computational Anatomy (MFCA) N2 - In many applications, geodesic hierarchical models are adequate for the study of temporal observations. We employ such a model derived for manifold-valued data to Kendall's shape space. In particular, instead of the Sasaki metric, we adapt a functional-based metric, which increases the computational efficiency and does not require the implementation of the curvature tensor. We propose the corresponding variational time discretization of geodesics and apply the approach for the estimation of group trends and statistical testing of 3D shapes derived from an open access longitudinal imaging study on osteoarthritis. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-49 KW - Shape Space KW - Kendall Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-74621 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - An as-invariant-as-possible GL+(3)-based Statistical Shape Model N2 - We describe a novel nonlinear statistical shape model basedon differential coordinates viewed as elements of GL+(3). We adopt an as-invariant-as possible framework comprising a bi-invariant Lie group mean and a tangent principal component analysis based on a unique GL+(3)-left-invariant, O(3)-right-invariant metric. Contrary to earlier work that equips the coordinates with a specifically constructed group structure, our method employs the inherent geometric structure of the group-valued data and therefore features an improved statistical power in identifying shape differences. We demonstrate this in experiments on two anatomical datasets including comparison to the standard Euclidean as well as recent state-of-the-art nonlinear approaches to statistical shape modeling. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-46 KW - Statistical shape analysis KW - Tangent principal component analysis KW - Lie groups KW - Classification KW - Manifold valued statistics Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-74566 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Surface-Theoretic Approach for Statistical Shape Modeling 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. We evaluate the performance of our model w.r.t. shape-based classification of pathological malformations of the human knee and show that it outperforms 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 natural biological shape variability, we carry out an analysis of specificity and generalization ability. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-20 KW - Statistical shape analysis KW - Principal geodesic analysis KW - Lie groups KW - Classification KW - Manifold valued statistics Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-74497 SN - 1438-0064 ER -