Multi-scale channel attention U-Net: a novel framework for automated gallbladder segmentation in medical imaging

To develop a novel automatic delineation model, the Multi-Scale Channel Attention U-Net (MCAU-Net) model, for gallbladder segmentation on CT images of patients with liver cancer.

We retrospectively collected the CT images from 120 patients with liver cancer, based on which ground truth was manually delineated by physicians. The images and ground truth constitute a dataset, which was proportionally divided into a training set (54%), a validation set (6%), and a test set (40%). Data augmentation was performed on the training set. Our proposed MCAU-Net model was employed for gallbladder segmentation and its performance was evaluated using Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Jaccard Similarity Coefficient (JSC), Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Sensitivity (SE), Hausdorff Distance (HD), Relative Volume Difference (RVD), and Volumetric Overlap Error (VOE) metrics.

On the test set, MCAU-Net achieved DSC, JSC, PPV, SE, HD, RVD, and VOE values of 0.85 ± 0.22, 0.79 ± 0.23, 0.92 ± 0.14, 0.84 ± 0.23, 2.75 ± 0.98, 0.18 ± 0.48, and 0.22 ± 0.42, respectively. Compared to the control models, U-Net, SEU-Net and TransUNet, the MCAU-Net improved DSC 0.06, 0.04 and 0.06, JSC by 0.09, 0.06 and 0.09, PPV by 0.08, 0.08 and 0.05, SE by 0.05,0.05 and 0.07, and reduced HD by 0.45, 0.28 and 0.41, RVD by 0.07, 0.03 and 0.07, VOE by 0.04, 0.02 and 0.08 respectively. Qualitative results revealed that MCAU-Net produced smoother and more accurate boundaries, closer to the expert delineation, with less over-segmentation and under-segmentation and improved robustness.

The MCAU-Net model significantly improves gallbladder segmentation on CT images. It satisfies clinical requirements and enhances the efficiency of physicians, particularly in segmenting complex anatomical structures.