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Michel Dojat

Publications and source records attributed to Michel Dojat.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Active MRI Acquisition with Diffusion Guided Bayesian Experimental Design

A key challenge in maximizing the benefits of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in clinical settings is to accelerate acquisition times without significantly degrading image quality. This objective requires a balance between under-sampling the raw k-space measurements for faster acquisitions and gathering sufficient raw information for high-fidelity image reconstruction and analysis tasks. To achieve this balance, we propose to use sequential Bayesian experimental design (BED) to provide an adaptive and task-dependent selection of the most informative measurements. Measurements are sequentially augmented with new samples selected to maximize information gain on a posterior distribution over target images. Selection is performed via a gradient-based optimization of a design parameter that defines a subsampling pattern. In this work, we introduce a new active BED procedure that leverages diffusion-based generative models to handle the high dimensionality of the images and employs stochastic optimization to select among a variety of patterns while meeting the acquisition process constraints and budget. So doing, we show how our setting can optimize, not only standard image reconstruction, but also any associated image analysis task. The versatility and performance of our approach are demonstrated on several MRI acquisitions.

cs.LG

Scalable magnetic resonance fingerprinting: Incremental inference of high dimensional elliptical mixtures from large data volumes

Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) is an emerging technology with the potential to revolutionize radiology and medical diagnostics. In comparison to traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), MRF enables the rapid, simultaneous, non-invasive acquisition and reconstruction of multiple tissue parameters, paving the way for novel diagnostic techniques. In the original matching approach, reconstruction is based on the search for the best matches between in vivo acquired signals and a dictionary of high-dimensional simulated signals (fingerprints) with known tissue properties. A critical and limiting challenge is that the size of the simulated dictionary increases exponentially with the number of parameters, leading to an extremely costly subsequent matching. In this work, we propose to address this scalability issue by considering probabilistic mixtures of high-dimensional elliptical distributions, to learn more efficient dictionary representations. Mixture components are modelled as flexible ellipitic shapes in low dimensional subspaces. They are exploited to cluster similar signals and reduce their dimension locally cluster-wise to limit information loss. To estimate such a mixture model, we provide a new incremental algorithm capable of handling large numbers of signals, allowing us to go far beyond the hardware limitations encountered by standard implementations. We demonstrate, on simulated and real data, that our method effectively manages large volumes of MRF data with maintained accuracy. It offers a more efficient solution for accurate tissue characterization and significantly reduces the computational burden, making the clinical application of MRF more practical and accessible.

stat.AP

Cluster globally, Reduce locally: Scalable efficient dictionary compression for magnetic resonance fingerprinting

With the rapid advancements in medical data acquisition and production, increasingly richer representations exist to characterize medical information. However, such large-scale data do not usually meet computing resource constraints or algorithmic complexity, and can only be processed after compression or reduction, at the potential loss of information. In this work, we consider specific Gaussian mixture models (HD-GMM), tailored to deal with high dimensional data and to limit information loss by providing component-specific lower dimensional representations. We also design an incremental algorithm to compute such representations for large data sets, overcoming hardware limitations of standard methods. Our procedure is illustrated in a magnetic resonance fingerprinting study, where it achieves a 97% dictionary compression for faster and more accurate map reconstructions.

stat.AP

Robust Conformal Volume Estimation in 3D Medical Images

Volumetry is one of the principal downstream applications of 3D medical image segmentation, for example, to detect abnormal tissue growth or for surgery planning. Conformal Prediction is a promising framework for uncertainty quantification, providing calibrated predictive intervals associated with automatic volume measurements. However, this methodology is based on the hypothesis that calibration and test samples are exchangeable, an assumption that is in practice often violated in medical image applications. A weighted formulation of Conformal Prediction can be framed to mitigate this issue, but its empirical investigation in the medical domain is still lacking. A potential reason is that it relies on the estimation of the density ratio between the calibration and test distributions, which is likely to be intractable in scenarios involving high-dimensional data. To circumvent this, we propose an efficient approach for density ratio estimation relying on the compressed latent representations generated by the segmentation model. Our experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our approach to reduce the coverage error in the presence of covariate shifts, in both synthetic and real-world settings. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/benolmbrt/wcp_miccai

cs.CV

Graph-based methods coupled with specific distributional distances for adversarial attack detection

Artificial neural networks are prone to being fooled by carefully perturbed inputs which cause an egregious misclassification. These \textit{adversarial} attacks have been the focus of extensive research. Likewise, there has been an abundance of research in ways to detect and defend against them. We introduce a novel approach of detection and interpretation of adversarial attacks from a graph perspective. For an input image, we compute an associated sparse graph using the layer-wise relevance propagation algorithm \cite{bach15}. Specifically, we only keep edges of the neural network with the highest relevance values. Three quantities are then computed from the graph which are then compared against those computed from the training set. The result of the comparison is a classification of the image as benign or adversarial. To make the comparison, two classification methods are introduced: 1) an explicit formula based on Wasserstein distance applied to the degree of node and 2) a logistic regression. Both classification methods produce strong results which lead us to believe that a graph-based interpretation of adversarial attacks is valuable.

cs.LG

Towards frugal unsupervised detection of subtle abnormalities in medical imaging

Anomaly detection in medical imaging is a challenging task in contexts where abnormalities are not annotated. This problem can be addressed through unsupervised anomaly detection (UAD) methods, which identify features that do not match with a reference model of normal profiles. Artificial neural networks have been extensively used for UAD but they do not generally achieve an optimal trade-o$\hookleftarrow$ between accuracy and computational demand. As an alternative, we investigate mixtures of probability distributions whose versatility has been widely recognized for a variety of data and tasks, while not requiring excessive design e$\hookleftarrow$ort or tuning. Their expressivity makes them good candidates to account for complex multivariate reference models. Their much smaller number of parameters makes them more amenable to interpretation and e cient learning. However, standard estimation procedures, such as the Expectation-Maximization algorithm, do not scale well to large data volumes as they require high memory usage. To address this issue, we propose to incrementally compute inferential quantities. This online approach is illustrated on the challenging detection of subtle abnormalities in MR brain scans for the follow-up of newly diagnosed Parkinsonian patients. The identified structural abnormalities are consistent with the disease progression, as accounted by the Hoehn and Yahr scale.

eess.IV

Anisotropic Hybrid Networks for liver tumor segmentation with uncertainty quantification

The burden of liver tumors is important, ranking as the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality. In case of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the delineation of liver and tumor on contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) is performed to guide the treatment strategy. As this task is time-consuming, needs high expertise and could be subject to inter-observer variability there is a strong need for automatic tools. However, challenges arise from the lack of available training data, as well as the high variability in terms of image resolution and MRI sequence. In this work we propose to compare two different pipelines based on anisotropic models to obtain the segmentation of the liver and tumors. The first pipeline corresponds to a baseline multi-class model that performs the simultaneous segmentation of the liver and tumor classes. In the second approach, we train two distinct binary models, one segmenting the liver only and the other the tumors. Our results show that both pipelines exhibit different strengths and weaknesses. Moreover we propose an uncertainty quantification strategy allowing the identification of potential false positive tumor lesions. Both solutions were submitted to the MICCAI 2023 Atlas challenge regarding liver and tumor segmentation.

eess.IV

TriadNet: Sampling-free predictive intervals for lesional volume in 3D brain MR images

The volume of a brain lesion (e.g. infarct or tumor) is a powerful indicator of patient prognosis and can be used to guide the therapeutic strategy. Lesional volume estimation is usually performed by segmentation with deep convolutional neural networks (CNN), currently the state-of-the-art approach. However, to date, few work has been done to equip volume segmentation tools with adequate quantitative predictive intervals, which can hinder their usefulness and acceptation in clinical practice. In this work, we propose TriadNet, a segmentation approach relying on a multi-head CNN architecture, which provides both the lesion volumes and the associated predictive intervals simultaneously, in less than a second. We demonstrate its superiority over other solutions on BraTS 2021, a large-scale MRI glioblastoma image database.

eess.IV

Multi-layer Aggregation as a key to feature-based OOD detection

Deep Learning models are easily disturbed by variations in the input images that were not observed during the training stage, resulting in unpredictable predictions. Detecting such Out-of-Distribution (OOD) images is particularly crucial in the context of medical image analysis, where the range of possible abnormalities is extremely wide. Recently, a new category of methods has emerged, based on the analysis of the intermediate features of a trained model. These methods can be divided into 2 groups: single-layer methods that consider the feature map obtained at a fixed, carefully chosen layer, and multi-layer methods that consider the ensemble of the feature maps generated by the model. While promising, a proper comparison of these algorithms is still lacking. In this work, we compared various feature-based OOD detection methods on a large spectra of OOD (20 types), representing approximately 7800 3D MRIs. Our experiments shed the light on two phenomenons. First, multi-layer methods consistently outperform single-layer approaches, which tend to have inconsistent behaviour depending on the type of anomaly. Second, the OOD detection performance highly depends on the architecture of the underlying neural network.

cs.CV

Brain subtle anomaly detection based on auto-encoders latent space analysis : application to de novo parkinson patients

Neural network-based anomaly detection remains challenging in clinical applications with little or no supervised information and subtle anomalies such as hardly visible brain lesions. Among unsupervised methods, patch-based auto-encoders with their efficient representation power provided by their latent space, have shown good results for visible lesion detection. However, the commonly used reconstruction error criterion may limit their performance when facing less obvious lesions. In this work, we design two alternative detection criteria. They are derived from multivariate analysis and can more directly capture information from latent space representations. Their performance compares favorably with two additional supervised learning methods, on a difficult de novo Parkinson Disease (PD) classification task.

eess.IV

Improving Uncertainty-based Out-of-Distribution Detection for Medical Image Segmentation

Deep Learning models are easily disturbed by variations in the input images that were not seen during training, resulting in unpredictable behaviours. Such Out-of-Distribution (OOD) images represent a significant challenge in the context of medical image analysis, where the range of possible abnormalities is extremely wide, including artifacts, unseen pathologies, or different imaging protocols. In this work, we evaluate various uncertainty frameworks to detect OOD inputs in the context of Multiple Sclerosis lesions segmentation. By implementing a comprehensive evaluation scheme including 14 sources of OOD of various nature and strength, we show that methods relying on the predictive uncertainty of binary segmentation models often fails in detecting outlying inputs. On the contrary, learning to segment anatomical labels alongside lesions highly improves the ability to detect OOD inputs.

eess.IV

Trustworthy clinical AI solutions: a unified review of uncertainty quantification in deep learning models for medical image analysis

The full acceptance of Deep Learning (DL) models in the clinical field is rather low with respect to the quantity of high-performing solutions reported in the literature. Particularly, end users are reluctant to rely on the rough predictions of DL models. Uncertainty quantification methods have been proposed in the literature as a potential response to reduce the rough decision provided by the DL black box and thus increase the interpretability and the acceptability of the result by the final user. In this review, we propose an overview of the existing methods to quantify uncertainty associated to DL predictions. We focus on applications to medical image analysis, which present specific challenges due to the high dimensionality of images and their quality variability, as well as constraints associated to real-life clinical routine. We then discuss the evaluation protocols to validate the relevance of uncertainty estimates. Finally, we highlight the open challenges of uncertainty quantification in the medical field.

eess.IV

Nodal statistics-based equivalence relation for graph collections

Node role explainability in complex networks is very difficult, yet is crucial in different application domains such as social science, neurosciences or computer science. Many efforts have been made on the quantification of hubs revealing particular nodes in a network using a given structural property. Yet, in several applications, when multiple instances of networks are available and several structural properties appear to be relevant, the identification of node roles remains largely unexplored. Inspired by the node automorphically equivalence relation, we define an equivalence relation on graph nodes associated with any collection of nodal statistics (i.e. any functions on the node-set). This allows us to define new graph global measures: the power coefficient, and the orthogonality score to evaluate the parsimony and heterogeneity of a given nodal statistics collection. In addition, we introduce a new method based on structural patterns to compare graphs that have the same vertices set. This method assigns a value to a node to determine its role distinctiveness in a graph family. Extensive numerical results of our method are conducted on both generative graph models and real data concerning human brain functional connectivity. The differences in nodal statistics are shown to be dependent on the underlying graph structure. Comparisons between generative models and real networks combining two different nodal statistics reveal the complexity of human brain functional connectivity with differences at both global and nodal levels. Using a group of 200 healthy controls connectivity networks, our method computes high correspondence scores among the whole population, to detect homotopy, and finally quantify differences between comatose patients and healthy controls.

q-bio.NC

Beyond Voxel Prediction Uncertainty: Identifying brain lesions you can trust

Deep neural networks have become the gold-standard approach for the automated segmentation of 3D medical images. Their full acceptance by clinicians remains however hampered by the lack of intelligible uncertainty assessment of the provided results. Most approaches to quantify their uncertainty, such as the popular Monte Carlo dropout, restrict to some measure of uncertainty in prediction at the voxel level. In addition not to be clearly related to genuine medical uncertainty, this is not clinically satisfying as most objects of interest (e.g. brain lesions) are made of groups of voxels whose overall relevance may not simply reduce to the sum or mean of their individual uncertainties. In this work, we propose to go beyond voxel-wise assessment using an innovative Graph Neural Network approach, trained from the outputs of a Monte Carlo dropout model. This network allows the fusion of three estimators of voxel uncertainty: entropy, variance, and model's confidence; and can be applied to any lesion, regardless of its shape or size. We demonstrate the superiority of our approach for uncertainty estimate on a task of Multiple Sclerosis lesions segmentation.

eess.IV

Patch vs. Global Image-Based Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in MR Brain Scans of Early Parkinsonian Patients

Although neural networks have proven very successful in a number of medical image analysis applications, their use remains difficult when targeting subtle tasks such as the identification of barely visible brain lesions, especially given the lack of annotated datasets. Good candidate approaches are patch-based unsupervised pipelines which have both the advantage to increase the number of input data and to capture local and fine anomaly patterns distributed in the image, while potential inconveniences are the loss of global structural information. We illustrate this trade-off on Parkinson's disease (PD) anomaly detection comparing the performance of two anomaly detection models based on a spatial auto-encoder (AE) and an adaptation of a patch-fed siamese auto-encoder (SAE). On average, the SAE model performs better, showing that patches may indeed be advantageous.

eess.IV

ImUnity: a generalizable VAE-GAN solution for multicenter MR image harmonization

ImUnity is an original deep-learning model designed for efficient and flexible MR image harmonization. A VAE-GAN network, coupled with a confusion module and an optional biological preservation module, uses multiple 2D-slices taken from different anatomical locations in each subject of the training database, as well as image contrast transformations for its self-supervised training. It eventually generates 'corrected' MR images that can be used for various multi-center population studies. Using 3 open source databases (ABIDE, OASIS and SRPBS), which contain MR images from multiple acquisition scanner types or vendors and a large range of subjects ages, we show that ImUnity: (1) outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of quality of images generated using traveling subjects; (2) removes sites or scanner biases while improving patients classification; (3) harmonizes data coming from new sites or scanners without the need for an additional fine-tuning and (4) allows the selection of multiple MR reconstructed images according to the desired applications. Tested here on T1-weighted images, ImUnity could be used to harmonize other types of medical images.

eess.IV

Leveraging 3D Information in Unsupervised Brain MRI Segmentation

Automatic segmentation of brain abnormalities is challenging, as they vary considerably from one pathology to another. Current methods are supervised and require numerous annotated images for each pathology, a strenuous task. To tackle anatomical variability, Unsupervised Anomaly Detection (UAD) methods are proposed, detecting anomalies as outliers of a healthy model learned using a Variational Autoencoder (VAE). Previous work on UAD adopted a 2D approach, meaning that MRIs are processed as a collection of independent slices. Yet, it does not fully exploit the spatial information contained in MRI. Here, we propose to perform UAD in a 3D fashion and compare 2D and 3D VAEs. As a side contribution, we present a new loss function guarantying a robust training. Learning is performed using a multicentric dataset of healthy brain MRIs, and segmentation performances are estimated on White-Matter Hyperintensities and tumors lesions. Experiments demonstrate the interest of 3D methods which outperform their 2D counterparts.

eess.IV

Fast joint detection-estimation of evoked brain activity in event-related fMRI using a variational approach

In standard clinical within-subject analyses of event-related fMRI data, two steps are usually performed separately: detection of brain activity and estimation of the hemodynamic response. Because these two steps are inherently linked, we adopt the so-called region-based Joint Detection-Estimation (JDE) framework that addresses this joint issue using a multivariate inference for detection and estimation. JDE is built by making use of a regional bilinear generative model of the BOLD response and constraining the parameter estimation by physiological priors using temporal and spatial information in a Markovian modeling. In contrast to previous works that use Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques to approximate the resulting intractable posterior distribution, we recast the JDE into a missing data framework and derive a Variational Expectation-Maximization (VEM) algorithm for its inference. A variational approximation is used to approximate the Markovian model in the unsupervised spatially adaptive JDE inference, which allows fine automatic tuning of spatial regularisation parameters. It follows a new algorithm that exhibits interesting properties compared to the previously used MCMC-based approach. Experiments on artificial and real data show that VEM-JDE is robust to model mis-specification and provides computational gain while maintaining good performance in terms of activation detection and hemodynamic shape recovery.

stat.AP