MCAUnet: a deep learning framework for automated quantification of body composition in liver cirrhosis patients

Traditional methods for measuring body composition in CT scans rely on labor-intensive manual delineation, which is time-consuming and imprecise. This study proposes a deep learning-driven framework, MCAUnet, for accurate and automated quantification of body composition and comprehensive survival analysis in cirrhotic patients. A total of 11,362 L3-level lumbar CT slices were collected to train and validate the segmentation model. The proposed model incorporates an attention mechanism from the channel perspective, enabling adaptive fusion of critical channel features. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves an average Dice coefficient of 0.952 for visceral fat segmentation, significantly outperforming existing segmentation models. Based on the quantified body composition, sarcopenic visceral obesity (SVO) was defined, and an association model was developed to analyze the relationship between SVO and survival rates in cirrhotic patients. The study revealed that 3-year and 5-year survival rates of SVO patients were significantly lower than those of non-SVO patients. Regression analysis further validated the strong correlation between SVO and mortality in cirrhotic patients. In summary, the MCAUnet framework provides a novel, precise, and automated tool for body composition quantification and survival analysis in cirrhotic patients, offering potential support for clinical decision-making and personalized treatment strategies.