Kuan-Fu Chen

Sumit Pandey, Kuan-Fu Chen, Erik B. Dam

This paper introduces a comprehensive approach for segmenting regions of interest (ROI) in diverse medical imaging datasets, encompassing ultrasound, CT scans, and X-ray images. The proposed method harnesses the capabilities of the YOLOv8 model for approximate boundary box detection across modalities, alongside the Segment Anything Model (SAM) and High Quality (HQ) SAM for fully automatic and precise segmentation. To generate boundary boxes, the YOLOv8 model was trained using a limited set of 100 images and masks from each modality. The results obtained from our approach are extensively computed and analyzed, demonstrating its effectiveness and potential in medical image analysis. Various evaluation metrics, including precision, recall, F1 score, and Dice Score, were employed to quantify the accuracy of the segmentation results. A comparative analysis was conducted to assess the individual and combined performance of the YOLOv8, YOLOv8+SAM, and YOLOv8+HQ-SAM models. The results indicate that the SAM model performs better than the other two models, exhibiting higher segmentation accuracy and overall performance. While HQ-SAM offers potential advantages, its incremental gains over the standard SAM model may not justify the additional computational cost. The YOLOv8+SAM model shows promise for enhancing medical image segmentation and its clinical implications.

Pi-Ju Tsai, Charkkri Limbud, Kuan-Fu Chen et al.

Sepsis is a heterogeneous syndrome. Identifying clinically distinct phenotypes may enable more precise treatment strategies. In recent years, many researchers have applied clustering algorithms to sepsis patients. However, the clustering process rarely incorporates clinical relevance, potentially limiting to reflect clinically distinct phenotypes. We propose NPCNet, a novel deep clustering network with a target navigator that integrates temporal Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to better align sepsis phenotypes with clinical significance. We identify four sepsis phenotypes ($α$, $β$, $γ$, and $δ$) with divergence in SOFA trajectories. Notably, while $α$ and $δ$ phenotypes both show severe conditions in the early stage, NPCNet effectively differentiates patients who are likely to improve ($α$) from those at risk of deterioration ($δ$). Furthermore, through the treatment effect analysis, we discover that $α$, $β$, and $δ$ phenotypes may benefit from early vasopressor administration. The results show that NPCNet enhances precision treatment strategies by uncovering clinically distinct phenotypes.