Abstract
Objective
To investigate an automated aortic calcium segmentation and scoring tool at abdominal CT in an adult screening cohort.
Methods
Using instance segmentation with convolutional neural networks (Mask R-CNN), a fully automated vascular calcification algorithm was applied to a data set of 9914 non-contrast CT scans from 9032 consecutive asymptomatic adults (mean age, 57.5 ± 7.8 years; 4467 M/5447F) undergoing colonography screening. Follow-up scans were performed in a subset of 866 individuals (mean interval, 5.4 years). Automated abdominal aortic calcium volume, mass, and Agatston score were assessed. In addition, comparison was made with a separate validated semi-automated approach in a subset of 812 cases.
Results
Mean values were significantly higher in males for Agatston score (924.2 ± 2066.2 vs. 564.2 ± 1484.2, p < 0.001), aortic calcium mass (222.2 ± 526.0 mg vs. 144.5 ± 405.4 mg, p < 0.001) and volume (699.4 ± 1552.4 ml vs. 426.9 ± 1115.5 HU, p < 0.001). Overall age-specific Agatston scores increased an average of 10%/year for the entire cohort; males had a larger Agatston score increase between the ages of 40 to 60 than females (91.2% vs. 75.1%, p < 0.001) and had significantly higher mean Agatston scores between ages 50 and 80 (p < 0.001). For the 812-scan subset with both automated and semi-automated methods, median difference in Agatston score was 66.4 with an r2 agreement value of 0.84. Among the 866-patient cohort with longitudinal follow-up, the average Agatston score change was 524.1 ± 1317.5 (median 130.9), reflecting a mean increase of 25.5% (median 73.6%).
Conclusion
This robust, fully automated abdominal aortic calcification scoring tool allows for both individualized and population-based assessment. Such data could be automatically derived at non-contrast abdominal CT, regardless of the study indication, allowing for opportunistic assessment of cardiovascular risk.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- R-CNN:
-
Convolutional neural networks
- CVD:
-
Cardiovascular disease
- CT:
-
Computed tomography
- ROI:
-
Region of interest
- HU:
-
Hounsfield unit
References
Benjamin, E.J., et al., Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2017 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation, 2017. 135(10): p. e146-e603.
Sidney, S., et al., Recent Trends in Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States and Public Health Goals. JAMA Cardiol, 2016. 1(5): p. 594-9
Hajar, R., Framingham Contribution to Cardiovascular Disease. Heart views: the official journal of the Gulf Heart Association, 2016. 17(2): p. 78-81.
Executive Summary of The Third Report of The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, And Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol In Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III). Jama, 2001. 285(19): p. 2486-97.
James, P.A., et al., 2014 evidence-based guideline for the management of high blood pressure in adults: report from the panel members appointed to the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8). Jama, 2014. 311(5): p. 507-20.
Alqahtani, A.M., et al., Quantifying Aortic Valve Calcification using Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr, 2017. 11(2): p. 99-104.
Budoff, M.J., et al., Thoracic aortic calcification and coronary heart disease events: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA). Atherosclerosis, 2011. 215(1): p. 196-202.
DeLoach, S.S., et al., Aortic calcification predicts cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in renal transplantation. Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation: official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association, 2009. 24(4): p. 1314-1319.
O’Leary, D.H., et al., Carotid-artery intima and media thickness as a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke in older adults. Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group. N Engl J Med, 1999. 340(1): p. 14-22.
Pletcher, M.J., et al., Using the coronary artery calcium score to predict coronary heart disease events: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med, 2004. 164(12): p. 1285-92.
Eberhard, M., et al., Quantification of aortic valve calcification on contrast-enhanced CT of patients prior to transcatheter aortic valve implantation. EuroIntervention, 2017. 13(8): p. 921-927.
Gernaat, S.A.M., et al., Automatic quantification of calcifications in the coronary arteries and thoracic aorta on radiotherapy planning CT scans of Western and Asian breast cancer patients. Radiother Oncol, 2018. 127(3): p. 487-492.
Isgum, I., B. van Ginneken, and M. Olree, Automatic detection of calcifications in the aorta from CT scans of the abdomen. 3D computer-aided diagnosis. Acad Radiol, 2004. 11(3): p. 247-57.
Zoghbi, W.A., Cardiovascular imaging: a glimpse into the future. Methodist DeBakey cardiovascular journal, 2014. 10(3): p. 139-145.
Elmasri, K., et al., Automatic Detection and Quantification of Abdominal Aortic Calcification in Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry. Procedia Computer Science, 2016. 96: p. 1011-1021.
Kurugol, S., et al., Automated quantitative 3D analysis of aorta size, morphology, and mural calcification distributions. Medical physics, 2015. 42(9): p. 5467-5478.
O’Connor, S.D., et al., Does Nonenhanced CT-based Quantification of Abdominal Aortic Calcification Outperform the Framingham Risk Score in Predicting Cardiovascular Events in Asymptomatic Adults? Radiology, 2019. 290(1): p. 108-115.
Pickhardt, P.J., Imaging and Screening for Colorectal Cancer with CT Colonography. Radiol Clin North Am, 2017. 55(6): p. 1183-1196.
Chellamuthu, K., et al., Atherosclerotic Vascular Calcification Detection and Segmentation on Low Dose Computed Tomography Scans Using Convolutional Neural Networks, in IEEE ISBI. 2017: Melbourne, Australia. p. 388-391.
Liu, J., et al., Pelvic artery calcification detection on CT scans using convolutional neural networks, in SPIE Medical Imaging, S.G. Armato and N.A. Petrick, Editors. 2017. p. 101341A.
Liu, J., et al., A Semi-Supervised CNN Learning Method with Pseudo-class Labels for Atherosclerotic Vascular Calcification Detection, in 2019 IEEE 16th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2019), Venice, Italy, April 8-11, 2019. pp. 780-783.
Yao, J., O’Connor, S.D. and Summers, R.M. Automated spinal column extraction and partitioning. in 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006. 2006.
He, K.M., et al., Mask R-CNN. 2017 Ieee International Conference on Computer Vision (Iccv), 2017: p. 2980-2988.
Rumberger, J.A. and L. Kaufman, A Rosetta Stone for Coronary Calcium Risk Stratification: Agatston, Volume, and Mass Scores in 11,490 Individuals. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2003. 181(3): p. 743-748.
Dudina, A., et al., Relationships between body mass index, cardiovascular mortality, and risk factors: a report from the SCORE investigators. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil, 2011. 18(5): p. 731-42.
Khan, S.S., et al., Association of Body Mass Index With Lifetime Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Compression of Morbidity. JAMA Cardiol, 2018. 3(4): p. 280-287.
Mancio, J., et al., Association of body mass index and visceral fat with aortic valve calcification and mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement: the obesity paradox in severe aortic stenosis. Diabetol Metab Syndr, 2017. 9: p. 86.
Glodny, B., et al., A method for calcium quantification by means of CT coronary angiography using 64-multidetector CT: very high correlation with Agatston and volume scores. Eur Radiol, 2009. 19(7): p. 1661-8.
Laudon, D.A., et al., Computed tomographic coronary artery calcium assessment for evaluating chest pain in the emergency department: long-term outcome of a prospective blind study. Mayo Clinic proceedings, 2010. 85(4): p. 314-322.
Li, Q., et al., Coronary artery calcium quantification using contrast-enhanced dual-energy computed tomography scans in comparison with unenhanced single-energy scans. Phys Med Biol, 2018. 63(17): p. 175006.
Moreno, C.C., et al., Changing Abdominal Imaging Utilization Patterns: Perspectives From Medicare Beneficiaries Over Two Decades. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 2016. 13(8): p. 894-903.
Lee, S.J. and P.J. Pickhardt, Opportunistic Screening for Osteoporosis Using Body CT Scans Obtained for Other Indications: the UW Experience. Clinical Reviews in Bone and Mineral Metabolism, 2017. 15(3): p. 128-137.
Pickhardt, P.J., et al., Opportunistic Screening for Osteoporosis Using Abdominal Computed Tomography Scans Obtained for Other Indications. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013. 158(8): p. 588-595.
Boyce, C.J., et al., Hepatic Steatosis (Fatty Liver Disease) in Asymptomatic Adults Identified by Unenhanced Low-Dose CT. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2010. 194(3): p. 623-628.
Pickhardt, P.J., et al., Natural History of Hepatic Steatosis: Observed Outcomes for Subsequent Liver and Cardiovascular Complications. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2014. 202(4): p. 752-758.
Pickhardt, P.J., et al., Visceral Adiposity and Hepatic Steatosis at Abdominal CT: Association With the Metabolic Syndrome. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2012. 198(5): p. 1100-1107.
Pickhardt, P.J., et al., CT colonography to screen for colorectal cancer and aortic aneurysm in the Medicare population: cost-effectiveness analysis. AJR Am J Roentgenol, 2009. 192(5): p. 1332-40.
Lee, S.J., et al., Fully automated segmentation and quantification of visceral and subcutaneous fat at abdominal CT: application to a longitudinal adult screening cohort. Br J Radiol, 2018. 91(1089): p. 20170968.
Lee, S.J., P.A. Anderson, and P.J. Pickhardt, Predicting Future Hip Fractures on Routine Abdominal CT Using Opportunistic Osteoporosis Screening Measures: A Matched Case-Control Study. AJR Am J Roentgenol, 2017. 209(2): p. 395-402.
Lee, S.J., et al., Future Osteoporotic Fracture Risk Related to Lumbar Vertebral Trabecular Attenuation Measured at Routine Body CT. J Bone Miner Res, 2018. 33(5): p. 860-867.
Pickhardt, P.J., et al., Population-based opportunistic osteoporosis screening: Validation of a fully automated CT tool for assessing longitudinal BMD changes. British Journal of Radiology, 2019. 92(1094).
Acknowledgement
This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and made use of the high performance computing capabilities of the NIH Biowulf system.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no direct conflict of interest, but Dr. Pickhardt serves as an advisor to Bracco and is a shareholder in SHINE, Elucent, and Cellectar and Dr. Summers receives royalties from iCAD, PingAn, Philips and ScanMed and research support from PingAn and NVIDIA.
Ethical approval
This study was approved by our institutional IRB.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Graffy, P.M., Liu, J., O’Connor, S. et al. Automated segmentation and quantification of aortic calcification at abdominal CT: application of a deep learning-based algorithm to a longitudinal screening cohort. Abdom Radiol 44, 2921–2928 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-019-02014-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-019-02014-2