Using Artificial Intelligence for Automatic Segmentation of CT Lung Images in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Herrmann, Peter; Busana, Mattia; Cressoni, Massimo; Lotz, Joachim; Moerer, Onnen; Saager, Leif; Meissner, Konrad; Quintel, Michael; Gattinoni, Luciano

Knowledge of gas volume, tissue mass and recruitability measured by the quantitative CT scan analysis (CT-qa) is important when setting the mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Yet, the manual segmentation of the lung requires a considerable workload. Our goal was to provide an automatic, clinically applicable and reliable lung segmentation procedure. Therefore, a convolutional neural network (CNN) was used to train an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm on 15 healthy subjects (1,302 slices), 100 ARDS patients (12,279 slices), and 20 COVID-19 (1,817 slices). Eighty percent of this populations was used for training, 20% for testing. The AI and manual segmentation at slice level were compared by intersection over union (IoU). The CT-qa variables were compared by regression and Bland Altman analysis. The AI-segmentation of a single patient required 5–10 s vs. 1–2 h of the manual. At slice level, the algorithm showed on the test set an IOU across all CT slices of 91.3 ± 10.0, 85.2 ± 13.9, and 84.7 ± 14.0%, and across all lung volumes of 96.3 ± 0.6, 88.9 ± 3.1, and 86.3 ± 6.5% for normal lungs, ARDS and COVID-19, respectively, with a U-shape in the performance: better in the lung middle region, worse at the apex and base. At patient level, on the test set, the total lung volume measured by AI and manual segmentation had a R(2) of 0.99 and a bias −9.8 ml [CI: +56.0/−75.7 ml]. The recruitability measured with manual and AI-segmentation, as change in non-aerated tissue fraction had a bias of +0.3% [CI: +6.2/−5.5%] and −0.5% [CI: +2.3/−3.3%] expressed as change in well-aerated tissue fraction. The AI-powered lung segmentation provided fast and clinically reliable results. It is able to segment the lungs of seriously ill ARDS patients fully automatically.