Volumetric quantitative measurement of hip effusions by manual versus automated artificial intelligence techniques: An OMERACT preliminary validation study

Abstract:

Objective

Preliminary assessment, via OMERACT filter, of manual and automated MRI hip effusion Volumetric Quantitative Measurement (VQM).

Methods

For 358 hips (93 osteoarthritis subjects, bilateral, 2 time points), 2 radiologists performed manual VQM using custom Matlab software. A Mask R-CNN artificial-intelligence (AI) tool was trained to automatically compute joint fluid volumes.

Results

Manual VQM had excellent inter-observer reliability (ICC 0.96). AI predicted hip fluid volumes with ICC 0.86 (status), 0.58 (change) vs. 2 human readers.

Conclusion

Hip joint fluid volumes are reliably assessed by VQM. It is feasible to automate this approach using AI, with promising initial reliability.