Study on the practicality of the semi‐automatic measurement for the urogenital hiatus / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the consistency of urogenital hiatus ( U H ) data between the semi‐automatic measurement and manual measurement using transperineal pelvic floor ultrasonography . Methods Total of 286 three‐dimensional images of minimal U H dimension were obtained . And they were divided into study group ( 100 images) and test group ( 186 images) randomly . T hree experts traced and created the w hole profile of the U H of those images in the study group by M AT LAB . T hen the semi‐automatic software was obtained through machine learning algorithms . In the test group , 6 parameters of U H ( including anterioposterior diameter , transverse diameter ,circumference , area ,left and right levator urethral gap distance) were measured by two experts ( D 1 and D2 ) both manually and semi‐automatically . T he time experts spent on measuring was also recorded and compared . Results T he time used for semi‐automatic measurement was significantly shorter than that for manual measurement [ ( 7 .49 ± 1 .51 ) s vs ( 42 .42 ± 11 .08) s ,( 7 .52 ± 1 .37) s vs ( 43 .45 ± 9 .09) s for D1 and D2 , t ＝ －12 .09 ,－13 .64 ,all P＝0 .00] . T he Pearson correlation coefficients between semi‐automatic and manual measurements of 6 parameters were 0 .857 －0 .985 ( P ＜ 0 .01) ,0 .853 －0 .979 ( P ＜ 0 .01 ) in D1 and D2 ,respectively . T he interclass correlation coefficients ( ICC) of six parameters were ranged from 0 .846 －0 .985 for D1 and 0 .843～0 .979 for D2 ( all P ＜ 0 .01 ) . T he Bland Altman plot also showed good agreement between two methods . Conclusions Intellectual recognition and semi‐automatic measurement has simplified the process for U H measurement ,and it is proved to be a reliable and timesaving method that is practical for clinical use .