Automatic post-stroke lesion segmentation on MR images using 3D residual convolutional neural network

In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility and performance of deep residual neural networks for volumetric segmentation of irreversibly damaged brain tissue lesions on T1-weighted MRI scans for chronic stroke patients. A total of 239 T1-weighted MRI scans of chronic ischemic stroke patients from a public dataset were retrospectively analyzed by 3D deep convolutional segmentation models with residual learning, using a novel zoom-in&out strategy. Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), and Hausdorff distance (HD) of the identified lesions were measured by using manual tracing of lesions as the reference standard. Bootstrapping was employed for all metrics to estimate 95% confidence intervals. The models were assessed on a test set of 31 scans. The average DSC was 0.64 (0.51–0.76) with a median of 0.78. ASSD and HD were 3.6 mm (1.7–6.2 mm) and 20.4 mm (10.0–33.3 mm), respectively. The latest deep learning architecture and techniques were applied with 3D segmentation on MRI scans and demonstrated effectiveness for volumetric segmentation of chronic ischemic stroke lesions.