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Taylor SL, Donahue PMC, Pridmore MD, Garza ME, Patel NJ, Custer CA, Luo Y, Aday AW, Beckman JA, Donahue MJ, Crescenzi RL. Semiautomated segmentation of lower extremity MRI reveals distinctive subcutaneous adipose tissue in lipedema: a pilot study. J Med Imaging (Bellingham) 2023; 10:036001. [PMID: 37197375 PMCID: PMC10185105 DOI: 10.1117/1.jmi.10.3.036001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose Lipedema is a painful subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) disease involving disproportionate SAT accumulation in the lower extremities that is frequently misdiagnosed as obesity. We developed a semiautomatic segmentation pipeline to quantify the unique lower-extremity SAT quantity in lipedema from multislice chemical-shift-encoded (CSE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Approach Patients with lipedema (n = 15 ) and controls (n = 13 ) matched for age and body mass index (BMI) underwent CSE-MRI acquired from the thighs to ankles. Images were segmented to partition SAT and skeletal muscle with a semiautomated algorithm incorporating classical image processing techniques (thresholding, active contours, Boolean operations, and morphological operations). The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) was computed for SAT and muscle automated versus ground truth segmentations in the calf and thigh. SAT and muscle volumes and the SAT-to-muscle volume ratio were calculated across slices for decades containing 10% of total slices per participant. The effect size was calculated, and Mann-Whitney U test applied to compare metrics in each decade between groups (significance: two-sided P < 0.05 ). Results Mean DSC for SAT segmentations was 0.96 in the calf and 0.98 in the thigh, and for muscle was 0.97 in the calf and 0.97 in the thigh. In all decades, mean SAT volume was significantly elevated in participants with versus without lipedema (P < 0.01 ), whereas muscle volume did not differ. Mean SAT-to-muscle volume ratio was significantly elevated (P < 0.001 ) in all decades, where the greatest effect size for distinguishing lipedema was in the seventh decade approximately midthigh (r = 0.76 ). Conclusions The semiautomated segmentation of lower-extremity SAT and muscle from CSE-MRI could enable fast multislice analysis of SAT deposition throughout the legs relevant to distinguishing patients with lipedema from females with similar BMI but without SAT disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon L. Taylor
- Vanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Paula M. C. Donahue
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dayani Center for Health and Wellness, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Michael D. Pridmore
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Maria E. Garza
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Niral J. Patel
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Chelsea A. Custer
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Yu Luo
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Aaron W. Aday
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt Translational and Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Joshua A. Beckman
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt Translational and Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Manus J. Donahue
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
| | - Rachelle L. Crescenzi
- Vanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
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