Deep learning auto-segmentation on multi-sequence magnetic resonance images for upper abdominal organs

INTRODUCTION: Multi-sequence multi-parameter MRIs are often used to define targets and/or organs at risk (OAR) in radiation therapy (RT) planning. Deep learning has so far focused on developing auto-segmentation models based on a single MRI sequence. The purpose of this work is to develop a multi-sequence deep learning based auto-segmentation (mS-DLAS) based on multi-sequence abdominal MRIs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a previously developed 3DResUnet network, a mS-DLAS model using 4 T1 and T2 weighted MRI acquired during routine RT simulation for 71 cases with abdominal tumors was trained and tested. Strategies including data pre-processing, Z-normalization approach, and data augmentation were employed. Additional 2 sequence specific T1 weighted (T1-M) and T2 weighted (T2-M) models were trained to evaluate performance of sequence-specific DLAS. Performance of all models was quantitatively evaluated using 6 surface and volumetric accuracy metrics. RESULTS: The developed DLAS models were able to generate reasonable contours of 12 upper abdomen organs within 21 seconds for each testing case. The 3D average values of dice similarity coefficient (DSC), mean distance to agreement (MDA mm), 95 percentile Hausdorff distance (HD95% mm), percent volume difference (PVD), surface DSC (sDSC), and relative added path length (rAPL mm/cc) over all organs were 0.87, 1.79, 7.43, -8.95, 0.82, and 12.25, respectively, for mS-DLAS model. Collectively, 71% of the auto-segmented contours by the three models had relatively high quality. Additionally, the obtained mS-DLAS successfully segmented 9 out of 16 MRI sequences that were not used in the model training. CONCLUSION: We have developed an MRI-based mS-DLAS model for auto-segmenting of upper abdominal organs on MRI. Multi-sequence segmentation is desirable in routine clinical practice of RT for accurate organ and target delineation, particularly for abdominal tumors. Our work will act as a stepping stone for acquiring fast and accurate segmentation on multi-contrast MRI and make way for MR only guided radiation therapy.