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This paper provides the first review to date which gathers, describes, and assesses, to the best of our knowledge, all available publications on automating cerebral microbleed (CMB) detection. It provides insights into the current state of the art and highlights the challenges and opportunities in this topic. By incorporating the best practices identified in this review, we established guidelines for the development of CMB detection systems. We are confident that these guidelines can serve as a foundation for further research. CMB detection is a crucial but challenging task that can be laborious for radiologists. With the increasing popularity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the ability to detect CMBs has improved, but there is still a need to automate this process to enhance its efficiency and accuracy. A high prevalence of CMBs is closely associated with cognitive dysfunction, diabetes, hypertension, an increased risk of stroke, and intracerebral hemorrhage. It is alarming to note that strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, and Diabetes mellitus have secured their position as the second, seventh, and ninth most common causes of death worldwide, respectively. Moreover, CMBs are sometimes found in association with other pathologies and indicate a range of pathological processes in the cerebral vessels. Thus, it is essential to enhance the quality of diagnostics to facilitate prompt identification and treatment of these potentially life-threatening conditions. In this paper, we aimed to systematize the existing knowledge and best practices in automatic CMB detection, from fundamental information about CMBs and MRI image data, through employed datasets and CMB detection and verification algorithms, to methods of result evaluation. This can serve as a starting point for future research and the development of a CMB detection system that is practically applicable in medicine, leading to enhanced patient treatment outcomes.
Ferlin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.