Fully automated image-based estimation of postural point-features in children with cerebral palsy using deep learning

Cunningham, Ryan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6883-6515, Sánchez, María B, Butler, Penelope B, Southgate, Matthew J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7350-2448 and Loram, Ian D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8125-6320 (2019) Fully automated image-based estimation of postural point-features in children with cerebral palsy using deep learning. Royal Society Open Science, 6 (11). ISSN 2054-5703

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to provide automated identification of postural point-features required to estimate the location and orientation of the head, multi-segmented trunk and arms from videos of the clinical test ‘Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control’ (SATCo). Three expert operators manually annotated 13 point-features in every fourth image of 177 short (5–10 s) videos (25 Hz) of 12 children with cerebral palsy (aged: 4.52 ± 2.4 years), participating in SATCo testing. Linear interpolation for the remaining images resulted in 30 825 annotated images. Convolutional neural networks were trained with cross-validation, giving held-out test results for all children. The point-features were estimated with error 4.4 ± 3.8 pixels at approximately 100 images per second. Truncal segment angles (head, neck and six thoraco-lumbar–pelvic segments) were estimated with error 6.4 ± 2.8°, allowing accurate classification (F1 > 80%) of deviation from a reference posture at thresholds up to 3°, 3° and 2°, respectively. Contact between arm point-features (elbow and wrist) and supporting surface was classified at F1 = 80.5%. This study demonstrates, for the first time, technical feasibility to automate the identification of (i) a sitting segmental posture including individual trunk segments, (ii) changes away from that posture, and (iii) support from the upper limb, required for the clinical SATCo.