A rule-based method to automatically locate lumbar vertebral bodies on MRI images

Segmentation is a critical process in medical image interpretation. It is also essential for preparing training datasets for machine learning (ML)-based solutions. Despite technological advancements, achieving fully automatic segmentation is still challenging. User interaction is required to initiate the process, either by defining points or regions of interest, or by verifying and refining the output. One of the complex structures that requires semi-automatic segmentation procedures or manually defined training datasets is the lumbar spine. Automating the placement of a point within each lumbar vertebral body could significantly reduce user interaction in these procedures.

A new method for automatically locating lumbar vertebral bodies in sagittal magnetic resonance images (MRI) is presented. The method integrates different image processing techniques and relies on the vertebral body morphology. Testing was mainly performed using 50 MRI scans that were previously annotated manually by placing a point at the centre of each lumbar vertebral body. A complementary public dataset was also used to assess robustness. Evaluation metrics included the correct labelling of each structure, the inclusion of each point within the corresponding vertebral body area, and the accuracy of the locations relative to the vertebral body centres using root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). A one-sample Student's t-test was also performed to find the distance beyond which differences are considered significant (α = 0.05).

All lumbar vertebral bodies from the primary dataset were correctly labelled, and the average RMSE and MAE between the automatic and manual locations were less than 5 mm. Distances to the vertebral body centres were found to be significantly less than 4.33 mm with a p-value < 0.05, and significantly less than half the average minimum diameter of a lumbar vertebral body with a p-value < 0.00001. Results from the complementary public dataset include high labelling and inclusion rates (85.1% and 94.3%, respectively), and similar accuracy values.

The proposed method successfully achieves robust and accurate automatic placement of points within each lumbar vertebral body. The automation of this process enables the transition from semi-automatic to fully automatic methods, thus reducing error-prone and time-consuming user interaction, and facilitating the creation of training datasets for ML-based solutions.