# Automated cross-sectional view selection in CT angiography of aortic dissections with uncertainty awareness and retrospective clinical annotations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11269 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11269/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Dropout as a Bayesian Approximation: Representing Model Uncertainty in Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02142/) (2015)
- [Simple and Scalable Predictive Uncertainty Estimation using Deep Ensembles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01474/) (2016)
- [Fast R-CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.08083/) (2015)
- [What Uncertainties Do We Need in Bayesian Deep Learning for Computer Vision?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.04977/) (2017)
- [A Review of Uncertainty Quantification in Deep Learning: Techniques, Applications and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.06225/) (2020)
- [Aleatoric uncertainty estimation with test-time augmentation for medical image segmentation with convolutional neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.07356/) (2018)
- [DropBlock: A regularization method for convolutional networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.12890/) (2018)
- [Exploring Uncertainty Measures in Deep Networks for Multiple Sclerosis Lesion Detection and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.01200/) (2018)
- [Integrating Spatial Configuration into Heatmap Regression Based CNNs for Landmark Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.00748/) (2019)
- [Assessing Reliability and Challenges of Uncertainty Estimations for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.03338/) (2019)
- [Quantifying and Leveraging Predictive Uncertainty for Medical Image Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04258/) (2020)
- [Towards safe deep learning: accurately quantifying biomarker uncertainty in neural network predictions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.08640/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Towards the Automatic Segmentation, Modeling and Meshing of the Aortic Vessel Tree from Multicenter Acquisitions: An Overview of the SEG.A. 2023 Segmentation of the Aorta Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24009/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Objective: Surveillance imaging of chronic aortic diseases, such as dissections, relies on obtaining and comparing cross-sectional diameter measurements at predefined aortic landmarks, over time. Due to a lack of robust tools, the orientation of the cross-sectional planes is defined manually by highly trained operators. We show how manual annotations routinely collected in a clinic can be efficiently used to ease this task, despite the presence of a non-negligible interoperator variability in the measurements. Impact: Ill-posed but repetitive imaging tasks can be eased or automated by leveraging imperfect, retrospective clinical annotations. Methodology: In this work, we combine convolutional neural networks and uncertainty quantification methods to predict the orientation of such cross-sectional planes. We use clinical data randomly processed by 11 operators for training, and test on a smaller set processed by 3 independent operators to assess interoperator variability. Results: Our analysis shows that manual selection of cross-sectional planes is characterized by 95% limits of agreement (LOA) of 10.6^circ and 21.4^circ per angle. Our method showed to decrease static error by 3.57^circ (40.2%) and 4.11^circ (32.8%) against state of the art and LOA by 5.4^circ (49.0%) and 16.0^circ (74.6%) against manual processing. Conclusion: This suggests that pre-existing annotations can be an inexpensive resource in clinics to ease ill-posed and repetitive tasks like cross-section extraction for surveillance of aortic dissections.