Convolutional neural networks for automated CMR image segmentation in rats with myocardial infarcts

In translational cardiovascular research, delineation of left ventricle (LV) in magnetic resonance images is a crucial step in assessing heart’s function. Performed manually, this task is time-consuming and prone to inter- and intra-reader variability. Here we report first AI-based tool for segmentation of rat cardiovascular MRI. The method is an ensemble of fully convolutional networks and can quantify clinically relevant measures: end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), and ejection fraction (EF) automatically. Overall, our method reaches Dice score of 0.93 on the independent test set. The mean absolute difference of segmented volumes between automated and manual segmentation is 22.5μL for EDV, 13.6μL for ESV, and for EF 2.9%. Our work demonstrates the value of AI in development of tools that will significantly reduce time spent on repetitive work and result in increased efficiency of reporting data to project teams.