The locus coeruleus (LC) is linked to the development and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Magnetic resonance imaging-based LC features have shown potential to assess LC integrity in vivo. We present a deep learning-based LC segmentation and feature extraction method called Ensemble-based Locus Coeruleus Segmentation Network (ELSI-Net) and apply it to healthy aging and AD dementia datasets. Agreement to expert raters and previously published LC atlases were assessed. We aimed to reproduce previously reported differences in LC integrity in aging and AD dementia and correlate extracted features to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD pathology. ELSI-Net demonstrated high agreement to expert raters and published atlases. Previously reported group differences in LC integrity were detected and correlations to CSF biomarkers were found. Although we found excellent performance, further evaluations on more diverse datasets from clinical cohorts are required for a conclusive assessment of ELSI-Net's general applicability. We provide a thorough evaluation of a fully automatic locus coeruleus (LC) segmentation method termed Ensemble-based Locus Coeruleus Segmentation Network (ELSI-Net) in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia.ELSI-Net outperforms previous work and shows high agreement with manual ratings and previously published LC atlases.ELSI-Net replicates previously shown LC group differences in aging and AD.ELSI-Net's LC mask volume correlates with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of AD pathology.

Volumetric atlases are an invaluable tool in neuroscience and otolaryngology, greatly aiding experiment planning and surgical interventions, as well as the interpretation of experimental and clinical data. The rat is a major animal model for hearing and balance studies, and a detailed volumetric atlas for the rat central auditory system (Waxholm) is available. However, the Waxholm rat atlas only contains a low-resolution inner ear featuring five structures. In the present work, we segmented and annotated 34 structures in the rat inner ear, yielding a detailed volumetric inner ear atlas which can be integrated with the Waxholm rat brain atlas. We performed iodine-enhanced microCT and iDISCO+-based clearing and fluorescence lightsheet microscopy imaging on a sample of rat temporal bones. Image stacks were segmented in a semiautomated way, and 34 inner ear volumes were reconstructed from five samples. Using geometrical morphometry, high-resolution segmentations obtained from lightsheet and microCT stacks were registered into the coordinate system of the Waxholm rat atlas. Cleared sample autofluorescence was used for the reconstruction of most inner ear structures, including fluid-filled compartments, nerves and sensory epithelia, blood vessels, and connective tissue structures. Image resolution allowed reconstruction of thin ducts (reuniting, saccular and endolymphatic), and the utriculoendolymphatic valve. The vestibulocochlear artery coursing through bone was found to be associated to the reuniting duct, and to be visible both in cleared and microCT samples, thus allowing to infer duct location from microCT scans. Cleared labyrinths showed minimal shape distortions, as shown by alignment with microCT and Waxholm labyrinths. However, membranous labyrinths could display variable collapse of the superior division, especially the roof of canal ampullae, whereas the inferior division (saccule and cochlea) was well preserved, with the exception of Reissner's membrane that could display ruptures in the second cochlear turn. As an example of atlas use, the volumes reconstructed from segmentations were used to separate macrophage populations from the spiral ganglion, auditory neuron dendrites, and Organ of Corti. We have reconstructed 34 structures from the rat temporal bone, which are available as both image stacks and printable 3D objects in a shared repository for download. These can be used for teaching, localizing cells or other features within the ear, modeling auditory and vestibular sensory physiology and training of automated segmentation machine learning tools.

Artificial intelligence (AI) methods have established themselves in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) as automated quantification tools for ventricular volumes, function, and myocardial tissue characterization. Quality assurance approaches focus on measuring and controlling AI-expert differences but there is a need for tools that better communicate reliability and agreement. This study introduces the Verity plot, a novel statistical visualization that communicates the reliability of quantitative parameters (QP) with clear agreement criteria and descriptive statistics. Tolerance ranges for the acceptability of the bias and variance of AI-expert differences were derived from intra- and interreader evaluations. AI-expert agreement was defined by bias confidence and variance tolerance intervals being within bias and variance tolerance ranges. A reliability plot was designed to communicate this statistical test for agreement. Verity plots merge reliability plots with density and a scatter plot to illustrate AI-expert differences. Their utility was compared against Correlation, Box and Bland-Altman plots. Bias and variance tolerance ranges were established for volume, function, and myocardial tissue characterization QPs. Verity plots provided insights into statstistcal properties, outlier detection, and parametric test assumptions, outperforming Correlation, Box and Bland-Altman plots. Additionally, they offered a framework for determining the acceptability of AI-expert bias and variance. Verity plots offer markers for bias, variance, trends and outliers, in addition to deciding AI quantification acceptability. The plots were successfully applied to various AI methods in CMR and decisively communicated AI-expert agreement.

Cervical spine disorders are becoming increasingly common, particularly among sedentary populations. The accurate segmentation of cervical vertebrae is critical for diagnostic and research applications. Traditional segmentation methods are limited in terms of precision and applicability across imaging modalities. The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate a fully automatic segmentation method and a user-friendly tool for detecting cervical vertebral body using a combined neural network model based on the YOLOv11 and U-Net3 + models. A dataset of X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images was collected, enhanced, and annotated to include 2136 X-ray images and 2184 MRI images. The proposed YOLO-UNet ensemble model was trained and compared with four other groups of image extraction models, including YOLOv11, DeepLabV3+, U-Net3 + for direct image segmentation, and the YOLO-DeepLab network. The evaluation metrics included the Dice coefficient, Hausdorff distance, intersection over union, positive predictive value, and sensitivity. The YOLO-UNet model combined the advantages of the YOLO and U-Net models and demonstrated excellent vertebral body segmentation capabilities on both X-ray and MRI datasets, which were closer to the ground truth images. Compared with other models, it achieved greater accuracy and a more accurate depiction of the vertebral body shape, demonstrated better versatility, and exhibited superior performance across all evaluation indicators. The YOLO-UNet network model provided a robust and versatile solution for cervical vertebral body segmentation, demonstrating excellent accuracy and adaptability across imaging modalities on both X-ray and MRI datasets. The accompanying user-friendly tool enhanced usability, making it accessible to both clinical and research users. In this study, the challenge of large-scale medical annotation tasks was addressed, thereby reducing project costs and supporting advancements in medical information technology and clinical research.