Development and validation of a reliable method for automated measurements of psoas muscle volume in CT scans using deep learning-based segmentation: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectivesWe aimed to develop an automated method for measuring the volume of the psoas muscle using CT to aid sarcopenia research efficiently.MethodsWe used a data set comprising the CT scans of 520 participants who underwent health check-ups at a health promotion centre. We developed a psoas muscle segmentation model using deep learning in a three-step process based on the nnU-Net method. The automated segmentation method was evaluated for accuracy, reliability, and time required for the measurement.ResultsThe Dice similarity coefficient was used to compare the manual segmentation with automated segmentation; an average Dice score of 0.927 ± 0.019 was obtained, with no critical outliers. Our automated segmentation system had an average measurement time of 2 min 20 s ± 20 s, which was 48 times shorter than that of the manual measurement method (111 min 6 s ± 25 min 25 s).ConclusionWe have successfully developed an automated segmentation method to measure the psoas muscle volume that ensures consistent and unbiased estimates across a wide range of CT images.