{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T05:15:21Z","timestamp":1787030121076,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,28]],"date-time":"2021-10-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1635379200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002923","name":"Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PIP number 1220130100480"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PIP number 1220130100480"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006668","name":"Fondo para la Investigaci\u00f3n Cient\u00edfica y Tecnol\u00f3gica","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PICT 2016-0945"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PICT 2016-0945"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006668","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Tomography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Arterial calcification is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events whereas thoracic aorta calcium (TAC) detection might anticipate extracoronary outcomes. In this work, we trained six convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to detect aortic calcifications and to automate the TAC score assessment in intermediate CVD risk patients. Cardiac computed tomography images from 1415 patients were analyzed together with their aortic geometry previously assessed. Orthogonal patches centered in each aortic candidate lesion were reconstructed and a dataset with 19,790 images (61% positives) was built. Three single-input 2D CNNs were trained using axial, coronal and sagittal patches together with two multi-input 2.5D CNNs combining the orthogonal patches and identifying their best regional combination (BRC) in terms of lesion location. Aortic calcifications were concentrated in the descending (66%) and aortic arch (26%) portions. The BRC of axial patches to detect ascending or aortic arch lesions and sagittal images for the descending portion had the best performance: 0.954 F1-Score, 98.4% sensitivity, 87% of the subjects correctly classified in their TAC category and an average false positive TAC score per patient of 30. A CNN that combined axial and sagittal patches depending on the candidate aortic location ensured an accurate TAC score prediction.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/tomography7040054","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,28]],"date-time":"2021-10-28T23:52:35Z","timestamp":1635465155000},"page":"636-649","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Thoracic Aorta Calcium Detection and Quantification Using Convolutional Neural Networks in a Large Cohort of Intermediate-Risk Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Federico N.","family":"Guilenea","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Medicina Traslacional, Trasplante y Bioingenier\u00eda (IMeTTyB), Universidad Favaloro-CONICET, Sol\u00eds 453, Buenos Aires CP 1078, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mariano E.","family":"Casciaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Medicina Traslacional, Trasplante y Bioingenier\u00eda (IMeTTyB), Universidad Favaloro-CONICET, Sol\u00eds 453, Buenos Aires CP 1078, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5236-8339","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ariel F.","family":"Pascaner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Medicina Traslacional, Trasplante y Bioingenier\u00eda (IMeTTyB), Universidad Favaloro-CONICET, Sol\u00eds 453, Buenos Aires CP 1078, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gilles","family":"Soulat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiovascular Imaging Unit, H\u00f4pital Europ\u00e9en Georges Pompidou, INSERM U970, 75015 Paris, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elie","family":"Mousseaux","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiovascular Imaging Unit, H\u00f4pital Europ\u00e9en Georges Pompidou, INSERM U970, 75015 Paris, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1065-799X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Damian","family":"Craiem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Medicina Traslacional, Trasplante y Bioingenier\u00eda (IMeTTyB), Universidad Favaloro-CONICET, Sol\u00eds 453, Buenos Aires CP 1078, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2938","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.743161","article-title":"Vascular calcification: Pathobiology of a multifaceted disease","volume":"117","author":"Demer","year":"2008","journal-title":"Circulation"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"140","DOI":"10.1161\/ATVBAHA.111.235234","article-title":"Calcified atherosclerosis in different vascular beds and the risk of mortality","volume":"32","author":"Allison","year":"2012","journal-title":"Arterioscler. 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