Evaluation of an Image Contrast-Agnostic Brain MRI Segmentation Tool on a Heterogeneous Pediatric Clinical Cohort

We evaluated the performance of the brain segmentation tool SynthSeg on a heterogeneous multi-center cohort of pediatric patients with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Brain MRI of the patient cohort was acquired at multiple field strengths, with a diverse range of image spatial resolutions, MR sequences, contrasts, and w/wo administration of gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA). SynthSeg performance was generally robust to resolution and contrast differences, especially for larger brain structures. Significant differences in some calculated volumes were detected upon pair-wise comparisons among patients with high- vs. low resolution scans, T1- vs. T2-weighed scans, and w/wo GBCA application, acquired on the same day.