Beyond strong labels: Weakly-supervised learning based on Gaussian pseudo labels for the segmentation of ellipse-like vascular structures in non-contrast CTs

Deep learning-based automated segmentation of vascular structures in preoperative CT angiography (CTA) images contributes to computer-assisted diagnosis and interventions. While CTA is the common standard, non-contrast CT imaging has the advantage of avoiding complications associated with contrast agents. However, the challenges of labor-intensive labeling and high labeling variability due to the ambiguity of vascular boundaries hinder conventional strong-label-based, fully-supervised learning in non-contrast CTs. This paper introduces a novel weakly-supervised framework using the elliptical topology nature of vascular structures in CT slices. It includes an efficient annotation process based on our proposed standards, an approach of generating 2D Gaussian heatmaps serving as pseudo labels, and a training process through a combination of voxel reconstruction loss and distribution loss with the pseudo labels. We assess the effectiveness of the proposed method on one local and two public datasets comprising non-contrast CT scans, particularly focusing on the abdominal aorta. On the local dataset, our weakly-supervised learning approach based on pseudo labels outperforms strong-label-based fully-supervised learning (1.54% of Dice score on average), reducing labeling time by around 82.0%. The efficiency in generating pseudo labels allows the inclusion of label-agnostic external data in the training set, leading to an additional improvement in performance (2.74% of Dice score on average) with a reduction of 66.3% labeling time, where the labeling time remains considerably less than that of strong labels. On the public dataset, the pseudo labels achieve an overall improvement of 1.95% in Dice score for 2D models with a reduction of 68% of the Hausdorff distance for 3D model.