Automatic assessment of human gastric motility and emptying from dynamic 3D magnetic resonance imaging

• Published in: Neurogastroenterology and motility 2022-01, Vol.34 (1), p.e14239-n/a
• Main Authors: Lu, Kun‐Han, Liu, Zhongming, Jaffey, Deborah, Wo, John M., Mosier, Kristine M., Cao, Jiayue, Wang, Xiaokai, Powley, Terry L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Automation; Contractility; Digestion - physiology; Female; Gastric emptying; Gastric Emptying - physiology; Gastric motility; Gastrointestinal Motility - physiology; Humans; Image processing; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; image segmentation; luminal wall motion analysis; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Motility; respiratory motion correction; Segmentation; Stomach; Stomach - diagnostic imaging; Stomach - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1350-1925; 1365-2982
• DOI: 10.1111/nmo.14239

Background Time‐sequenced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the stomach is an emerging technique for non‐invasive assessment of gastric emptying and motility. However, an automated and systematic image processing pipeline for analyzing dynamic 3D (ie, 4D) gastric MRI data has not been established. This study uses an MRI protocol for imaging the stomach with high spatiotemporal resolution and provides a pipeline for assessing gastric emptying and motility. Methods Diet contrast‐enhanced MRI images were acquired from seventeen healthy humans after they consumed a naturalistic contrast meal. An automated image processing pipeline was developed to correct for respiratory motion, to segment and compartmentalize the lumen‐enhanced stomach, to quantify total gastric and compartmental emptying, and to compute and visualize gastric motility on the luminal surface of the stomach. Key Results The gastric segmentation reached an accuracy of 91.10 ± 0.43% with the Type‐I error and Type‐II error being 0.11 ± 0.01% and 0.22 ± 0.01%, respectively. Gastric volume decreased 34.64 ± 2.8% over 1 h where the emptying followed a linear‐exponential pattern. The gastric motility showed peristaltic patterns with a median = 4 wave fronts (range 3–6) and a mean frequency of 3.09 ± 0.07 cycles per minute. Further, the contractile amplitude was stronger in the antrum than in the corpus (antrum vs. corpus: 5.18 ± 0.24 vs. 3.30 ± 0.16 mm; p