Scrolling 2D U-Net for the 3D segmentation of small vessels on 7T magnetic resonance angiography

Advancements in 7T MRI have allowed for higher spatial image resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio for the visualization of small vessels in the brain. Given the current availability of data, most segmentation techniques in the field have focused on large blood vessel segmentation as opposed to small blood vessel extraction. Thus, there is a need to train effective small vessel segmentation tools with minimal data. In this paper, we propose a scrolling 2D U-Net that integrates information regarding the 3D volume while performing 2D segmentation. This approach was compared to the nnUnet – the state-of-the-art in segmentation models.