CompositIA: an open-source automated quantification tool for body composition scores from thoraco-abdominal CT scans

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BackgroundBody composition scores allow for quantifying the volume and physical properties of specific tissues. However, their manual calculation is time-consuming and prone to human error. This study aims to develop and validate CompositIA, an automated, open-source pipeline for quantifying body composition scores from thoraco-abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans.MethodsA retrospective dataset of 205 contrast-enhanced thoraco-abdominal CT examinations was used for training, while 54 scans from a publicly available dataset were used for independent testing. Two radiology residents performed manual segmentation, identifying the centers of the L1 and L3 vertebrae and segmenting the corresponding axial slices. MultiResUNet was used to identify CT slices intersecting the L1 and L3 vertebrae, and its performance was evaluated using the mean absolute error (MAE). Two U-nets were used to segment the axial slices, with performance evaluated through the volumetric Dice similarity coefficient (vDSC). CompositIA’s performance in quantifying body composition indices was assessed using mean percentage relative error (PRE), regression, and Bland–Altman analyses.ResultsOn the independent dataset, CompositIA achieved a MAE of about 5 mm in detecting slices intersecting the L1 and L3 vertebrae, with a MAE < 10 mm in at least 85% of cases and a vDSC greater than 0.85 in segmenting axial slices. Regression and Bland–Altman analyses demonstrated a strong linear relationship and good agreement between automated and manual scores (p values < 0.001 for all indices), with mean PREs ranging from 5.13% to 15.18%.ConclusionCompositIA facilitated the automated quantification of body composition scores, achieving high precision in independent testing.Relevance statementCompositIA is an automated, open-source pipeline for quantifying body composition indices from CT scans, simplifying clinical assessments, and expanding their applicability.Key PointsManual body composition assessment from CTs is time-consuming and prone to errors.CompositIA was trained on 205 CT scans and tested on 54 scans.CompositIA demonstrated mean percentage relative errors under 15% compared to manual indices.CompositIA simplifies body composition assessment through an artificial intelligence-driven and open-source pipeline.Graphical