用深度学习实现大规模阴茎组织自动分割,助力男性生殖健康研究
Population-Scale Segmentation of Penile Tissue in DIXON MRI using Deep Learning for Quantitative Phenotyping in Male Reproductive Health

- 基于多通道DIXON MRI与3D nnU-Net模型,实现全阴茎自动分割
- 在独立测试集上达观察者级精度(Dice=0.92,Hausdorff=3.58)
- 已应用于英国生物银行3.4万人数据,适合生殖医学与影像研究者
阴茎测量在男性生殖与泌尿健康中具有临床意义,涵盖小阴茎、先天性或内分泌疾病及性功能或排尿障碍。然而,定量评估仍依赖外部长度或周长测量,难以标准化且无法捕捉内部结构。MRI可实现体内全阴茎体积评估,但此前尚未建立大规模自动化分割方法。自动化全器官体积测量将支持多组学与临床研究中的高通量表型分析。本文提出一种深度学习框架,用于多通道DIXON MRI中的全阴茎分割。基于新构建的专家标注训练集(n=145例;13,050张标注切片)和双标注独立测试基准(n=24例;2,160张双标注切片),优化了3D nnU-Net架构。模型在五折交叉验证中获得Dice分数0.90,在独立测试集上达到观察者水平精度(Dice: 0.92;Hausdorff距离: 3.58)。该模型已部署于34,412名英国生物银行参与者中,实现包括外部与内部成分在内的总阴茎组织自动化量化。对2,282名男性进行纵向评估显示高重测信度(r=0.87)。本框架建立了可重复、可扩展的基于MRI的阴茎解剖评估方法,并为未来泌尿影像与男性生殖健康研究提供开放技术资源。训练好的模型权重将公开发布。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Penile measurement is clinically relevant across male reproductive and urogenital health, including conditions such as micropenis, congenital and endocrine disorders, and sexual or urinary dysfunction. However, quantitative assessment of penile size has relied mainly on external length or circumference measurements, which are difficult to standardize, sensitive to measurement conditions, and unable to capture the internal portion of the penis. MRI enables volumetric assessment of the whole penis in vivo, but automated segmentation has not previously been established at population scale. Automated whole-organ volumetry would enable high-throughput phenotyping for multi-omics and clinical studies of male reproductive disease. Here, we present a deep learning framework for whole-penis segmentation in multi-channel DIXON MRI. Using a newly curated expert-annotated training dataset ($n = 145$ subjects; $13,050$ annotated slices) and a double-annotated independent test benchmark ($n = 24$ subjects; $2,160$ double-annotated slices), we optimized a 3D nnU-Net architecture. The model achieved a 5-fold cross-validation Dice score of $0.90$ and performed at observer-level accuracy on the independent test set (Dice: $0.92$; Hausdorff distance: $3.58$). We deployed the model in $34,412$ UK Biobank participants, enabling automated quantification of total penile tissue, including both external and internal components. Longitudinal evaluation in 2,282 men demonstrated high inter-session reproducibility ($r = 0.87$). This framework establishes a reproducible and population-scalable method for MRI-based assessment of penile anatomy and provides an open technical resource for future studies in urological imaging and male reproductive health. The trained model weights will be publicly released.
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