3D Multi-scale FCN with Random Modality Voxel Dropout Learning for Intervertebral Disc Localization and Segmentation from Multi-modality MR Images

Intervertebral discs (IVDs) are spine components that lie between each pair of adjacent vertebrae. They serve as shock absorbers in the spine and are crucial for vertebral movement. Disc degeneration (An et  al., 2004; Urban and Roberts, 2003) is a common cause of back pain and stiffness for adults, and is a major public health problem in modern societies. Traditionally, studies on disc degeneration were done mainly by means of manual segmentation of the discs. Such a manual approach is, however, rath er tedious and time-consuming, and is often subject to inter- and intra-observer variabilities (Violas et al., 2007; Niemeläinen et al., 2008).

Source: Medical Image Analysis - January 17, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Xiaomeng Li, Qi Dou, Hao Chen, Chi-Wing Fu, Xiaojuan Qi, Daniel L. Belav ý, Gabriele Armbrecht, Dieter Felsenberg, Guoyan Zheng, Pheng-Ann Heng Source Type: research