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Hongbin Han

Publications and source records attributed to Hongbin Han.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Improving Generalization of Deep Learning for Brain Metastases Segmentation Across Institutions

Background: Deep learning has demonstrated significant potential for automated brain metastases (BM) segmentation; however, models trained at a singular institution often exhibit suboptimal performance at various sites due to disparities in scanner hardware, imaging protocols, and patient demographics. The goal of this work is to create a domain adaptation framework that will allow for BM segmentation to be used across multiple institutions. Methods: We propose a VAE-MMD preprocessing pipeline that combines variational autoencoders (VAE) with maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) loss, incorporating skip connections and self-attention mechanisms alongside nnU-Net segmentation. The method was tested on 740 patients from four public databases: Stanford, UCSF, UCLM, and PKG, evaluated by domain classifier's accuracy, sensitivity, precision, F1/F2 scores, surface Dice (sDice), and 95th percentile Hausdorff distance (HD95). Results: VAE-MMD reduced domain classifier accuracy from 0.91 to 0.50, indicating successful feature alignment across institutions. Reconstructed volumes attained a PSNR greater than 36 dB, maintaining anatomical accuracy. The combined method raised the mean F1 by 11.1% (0.700 to 0.778), the mean sDice by 7.93% (0.7121 to 0.7686), and reduced the mean HD95 by 65.5% (11.33 to 3.91 mm) across all four centers compared to the baseline nnU-Net. Conclusions: VAE-MMD effectively diminishes cross-institutional data heterogeneity and enhances BM segmentation generalization across volumetric, detection, and boundary-level metrics without necessitating target-domain labels, thereby overcoming a significant obstacle to the clinical implementation of AI-assisted segmentation.

cs.CV

Unsupervised Deformable Image Registration with Local-Global Attention and Image Decomposition

Deformable image registration is a critical technology in medical image analysis, with broad applications in clinical practice such as disease diagnosis, multi-modal fusion, and surgical navigation. Traditional methods often rely on iterative optimization, which is computationally intensive and lacks generalizability. Recent advances in deep learning have introduced attention-based mechanisms that improve feature alignment, yet accurately registering regions with high anatomical variability remains challenging. In this study, we proposed a novel unsupervised deformable image registration framework, LGANet++, which employs a novel local-global attention mechanism integrated with a unique technique for feature interaction and fusion to enhance registration accuracy, robustness, and generalizability. We evaluated our approach using five publicly available datasets, representing three distinct registration scenarios: cross-patient, cross-time, and cross-modal CT-MR registration. The results demonstrated that our approach consistently outperforms several state-of-the-art registration methods, improving registration accuracy by 1.39% in cross-patient registration, 0.71% in cross-time registration, and 6.12% in cross-modal CT-MR registration tasks. These results underscore the potential of LGANet++ to support clinical workflows requiring reliable and efficient image registration. The source code is available at https://github.com/huangzyong/LGANet-Registration.

eess.IV

QSMnet-INR: Single-Orientation Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping via Implicit Neural Representation in k-Space

Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) quantifies tissue magnetic susceptibility from magnetic-resonance phase data and plays a crucial role in brain microstructure imaging, iron-deposition assessment, and neurological-disease research. However, single-orientation QSM inversion remains highly ill-posed because the dipole kernel exhibits a cone-null region in the Fourier domain, leading to streaking artifacts and structural loss. To overcome this limitation, we propose QSMnet-INR, a deep, physics-informed framework that integrates an Implicit Neural Representation (INR) into the k-space domain. The INR module continuously models multi-directional dipole responses and explicitly completes the cone-null region, while a frequency-domain residual-weighted Dipole Loss enforces physical consistency. The overall network combines a 3D U-Net-based QSMnet backbone with the INR module through alternating optimization for end-to-end joint training. Experiments on the 2016 QSM Reconstruction Challenge, a multi-orientation GRE dataset, and both in-house and public single-orientation clinical data demonstrate that QSMnet-INR consistently outperforms conventional and recent deep-learning approaches across multiple quantitative metrics. The proposed framework shows notable advantages in structural recovery within cone-null regions and in artifact suppression. Ablation studies further confirm the complementary contributions of the INR module and Dipole Loss to detail preservation and physical stability. Overall, QSMnet-INR effectively alleviates the ill-posedness of single-orientation QSM without requiring multi-orientation acquisition, achieving high accuracy, robustness, and strong cross-scenario generalization-highlighting its potential for clinical translation.

eess.IV

Efficient Image-to-Image Schr\"odinger Bridge for CT Field of View Extension

Computed tomography (CT) is a cornerstone imaging modality for non-invasive, high-resolution visualization of internal anatomical structures. However, when the scanned object exceeds the scanner's field of view (FOV), projection data are truncated, resulting in incomplete reconstructions and pronounced artifacts near FOV boundaries. Conventional reconstruction algorithms struggle to recover accurate anatomy from such data, limiting clinical reliability. Deep learning approaches have been explored for FOV extension, with diffusion generative models representing the latest advances in image synthesis. Yet, conventional diffusion models are computationally demanding and slow at inference due to their iterative sampling process. To address these limitations, we propose an efficient CT FOV extension framework based on the image-to-image Schr\"odinger Bridge (I$^2$SB) diffusion model. Unlike traditional diffusion models that synthesize images from pure Gaussian noise, I$^2$SB learns a direct stochastic mapping between paired limited-FOV and extended-FOV images. This direct correspondence yields a more interpretable and traceable generative process, enhancing anatomical consistency and structural fidelity in reconstructions. I$^2$SB achieves superior quantitative performance, with root-mean-square error (RMSE) values of 49.8 HU on simulated noisy data and 152.0 HU on real data, outperforming state-of-the-art diffusion models such as conditional denoising diffusion probabilistic models (cDDPM) and patch-based diffusion methods. Moreover, its one-step inference enables reconstruction in just 0.19 s per 2D slice, representing over a 700-fold speedup compared to cDDPM (135 s) and surpassing DiffusionGAN (0.58 s), the second fastest. This combination of accuracy and efficiency indicates that I$^2$SB has potential for real-time or clinical deployment.

eess.IV

Towards a general-purpose foundation model for fMRI analysis

Functional MRI (fMRI) is crucial for studying brain function and diagnosing neurological disorders. However, existing analysis methods suffer from reproducibility and transferability challenges due to complex preprocessing pipelines and task-specific model designs. In this work, we introduce NeuroSTORM (Neuroimaging Foundation Model with Spatial-Temporal Optimized Representation Modeling) that learns generalizable representations directly from 4D fMRI volumes and enables efficient transfer to diverse downstream applications. Specifically, NeuroSTORM is pre-trained on 28.65 million fMRI frames from over 50,000 subjects, spanning multiple centers and ages 5 to 100. It combines an efficient spatiotemporal modeling design and lightweight task adaptation to enable scalable pre-training and fast transfer to downstream applications. Here we show that NeuroSTORM consistently outperforms existing methods across five downstream tasks, including demographic prediction, phenotype prediction, disease diagnosis, re-identification, and state classification. On two multi-hospital clinical cohorts with 17 diagnoses, NeuroSTORM achieves the best diagnosis performance while remaining predictive of psychological and cognitive phenotypes. These results suggest that NeuroSTORM could become a standardized foundation model for reproducible and transferable fMRI analysis.

cs.CV

Modality-Projection Universal Model for Comprehensive Full-Body Medical Imaging Segmentation

The integration of deep learning in medical imaging has shown great promise for enhancing diagnostic, therapeutic, and research outcomes. However, applying universal models across multiple modalities remains challenging due to the inherent variability in data characteristics. This study aims to introduce and evaluate a Modality Projection Universal Model (MPUM). MPUM employs a novel modality-projection strategy, which allows the model to dynamically adjust its parameters to optimize performance across different imaging modalities. The MPUM demonstrated superior accuracy in identifying anatomical structures, enabling precise quantification for improved clinical decision-making. It also identifies metabolic associations within the brain-body axis, advancing research on brain-body physiological correlations. Furthermore, MPUM's unique controller-based convolution layer enables visualization of saliency maps across all network layers, significantly enhancing the model's interpretability.

eess.IV

Quantitative Analysis of Molecular Transport in the Extracellular Space Using Physics-Informed Neural Network

The brain extracellular space (ECS), an irregular, extremely tortuous nanoscale space located between cells or between cells and blood vessels, is crucial for nerve cell survival. It plays a pivotal role in high-level brain functions such as memory, emotion, and sensation. However, the specific form of molecular transport within the ECS remain elusive. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel approach to quantitatively analyze the molecular transport within the ECS by solving an inverse problem derived from the advection-diffusion equation (ADE) using a physics-informed neural network (PINN). PINN provides a streamlined solution to the ADE without the need for intricate mathematical formulations or grid settings. Additionally, the optimization of PINN facilitates the automatic computation of the diffusion coefficient governing long-term molecule transport and the velocity of molecules driven by advection. Consequently, the proposed method allows for the quantitative analysis and identification of the specific pattern of molecular transport within the ECS through the calculation of the Peclet number. Experimental validation on two datasets of magnetic resonance images (MRIs) captured at different time points showcases the effectiveness of the proposed method. Notably, our simulations reveal identical molecular transport patterns between datasets representing rats with tracer injected into the same brain region. These findings highlight the potential of PINN as a promising tool for comprehensively exploring molecular transport within the ECS.

cs.AI