Development

Paper/paper.bib

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ @article{Anderson2021-fp
 
 @misc{Creators_The_MONAI_Consortium_undated-or,
   title     = {Project {MONAI}},
-  author    = {{Creators The MONAI Consortium}},
+  author    = {Cardoso, M Jorge and Li, Wenqi and Brown, Richard and Ma, Nic and Kerfoot, Eric and Wang, Yiheng and Murrey, Benjamin and Myronenko, Andriy and Zhao, Can and Yang, Dong and others},
   doi       = {10.48550/arXiv.2211.02701},
   year      = {2022},
   url       = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.02701}

Paper/paper.md

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ In the pursuit of automated and precise analysis of medical images using artific
 
 # Statement of need
 
-The increasing adoption of AI-based methods for medical image analysis necessitates efficient tools for handling DICOM images and RT-Structures. While existing software packages provide basic functionalities for data conversion, they often lack the advanced features required for seamless integration into clinical workflows. The growing need for automated and robust analysis of medical images has driven the adoption of AI-based methods that often use DICOM images and RT structures as masks. However, the effectiveness of these AI approaches can vary due to differences in data sources and conversion techniques [@Whybra2023-en; @Yousefirizi2023-ax; @Rufenacht2023-as]. Despite the availability of tools for converting DICOM images and RT-Structures into other formats [@Anderson2021-fp; @Rufenacht2023-as], integrating auto-segmentation solutions using deep learning in clinical environments is rare due to the lack of open-source frameworks that handle DICOM RT-Structure sets effectively. Software packages like dcmrtstruct2nii, DicomRTTool [@Anderson2021-fp], and PyRaDiSe [@Rufenacht2023-as] provide necessary functionalities, while frameworks like TorchIO [@Perez-Garcia2021-jf] and MONAI [@Creators_The_MONAI_Consortium_undated-or] face limitations in processing DICOM RT-structure data. Research has shown that variations in mask-generation methods affect patient clustering and radiomic-based modeling in multi-center studies [@Whybra2023-en]. RT-utils addresses this gap by offering a specialized Python library that enhances the efficiency of manipulating RT-Structures. It is designed for researchers and clinicians who require advanced yet user-friendly tools to: i) Convert and manipulate RT-Struct data with precision. ii) Integrate AI-generated segmentation masks into clinical DICOM formats. iii) Streamline workflows by automating repetitive and complex tasks. iv) Ensure compatibility with clinical systems through meticulous DICOM header management. By providing these capabilities, RT-utils optimizes workflows in medical imaging analysis, facilitating the translation of AI models from research to clinical practice. RT-utils offers advanced techniques to convert expert-provided contours and AI tool output masks to RT-struct format, making them suitable for clinical workflows.
+The increasing adoption of AI-based methods for medical image analysis necessitates efficient tools for handling DICOM images and RT-Structures. While existing software packages provide basic functionalities for data conversion, they often lack the advanced features required for seamless integration into clinical workflows. The growing need for automated and robust analysis of medical images has driven the adoption of AI-based methods that often use DICOM images and RT structures as masks. However, the effectiveness of these AI approaches can vary due to differences in data sources and conversion techniques [@Whybra2023-en; @Yousefirizi2023-ax; @Rufenacht2023-as]. Despite the availability of tools for converting DICOM images and RT-Structures into other formats [@Anderson2021-fp; @Rufenacht2023-as], integrating auto-segmentation solutions using deep learning in clinical environments is rare due to the lack of open-source frameworks that handle DICOM RT-Structure sets precisely. Software packages like dcmrtstruct2nii, DicomRTTool [@Anderson2021-fp], and PyRaDiSe [@Rufenacht2023-as] provide necessary functionalities with higher accuracy, while frameworks like TorchIO [@Perez-Garcia2021-jf] and MONAI [@Creators_The_MONAI_Consortium_undated-or] face limitations in processing DICOM RT-structure data. Research has shown that variations in mask-generation methods affect patient clustering and radiomic-based modeling in multi-center studies [@Whybra2023-en]. RT-utils is an standard Python library that enhances the efficiency of manipulating RT-Structures. It is designed for researchers and clinicians who require advanced yet user-friendly tools to: i) Convert and manipulate RT-Struct data with precision. ii) Integrate AI-generated segmentation masks into clinical DICOM formats. iii) Streamline workflows by automating repetitive and complex tasks. iv) Ensure compatibility with clinical systems through meticulous DICOM header management. By providing these capabilities, RT-utils optimizes workflows in medical imaging analysis, facilitating the translation of AI models from research to clinical practice. RT-utils offers advanced techniques to convert expert-provided contours and AI tool output masks to RT-struct format, making them suitable for clinical workflows.
 
 # Overview of RT-utils
 

README.md

@@ -160,6 +160,9 @@ The add_roi method of our RTStruct class has a multitude of optional parameters
 - nifti to rtstruct conversion has been added.
 - conversion from DICOM to NIFTI for PET and corresponding RT-struct file has been added as an example usage with no issues of shift or mistmatch between the masks.
 
+## Examples
+You can find the comparison between RT-utils and other conversion techniques in this public repository: https://github.com/qurit/dicom_nifti_conversion_project 
+
 ## Contributing
 We welcome contributions to this project! Please review our [CONTRIBUTING guidelines](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details.
 

rt_utils/rtstruct.py

@@ -41,6 +41,45 @@ def add_roi(
         Optionally input a color or name for the ROI
         If use_pin_hole is set to true, will cut a pinhole through ROI's with holes in them so that they are represented with one contour
         If approximate_contours is set to False, no approximation will be done when generating contour data, leading to much larger amount of contour data
+        This method updates the internal DICOM structure (RTStruct) by adding
+        a new ROIContourSequence, StructureSetROISequence, and
+        RTROIObservationsSequence entry corresponding to the provided mask.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        mask : np.ndarray
+            3D boolean array indicating the ROI. Its shape must match
+            the underlying DICOM series in the third dimension.
+        color : str or list of int, optional
+            The color representation for the ROI. This can be a string (e.g., "red")
+            or a list of RGB values (e.g., [255, 0, 0]). Defaults to None.
+        name : str, optional
+            A name/label for this ROI. Defaults to None.
+        description : str, optional
+            Longer text describing this ROI. Defaults to an empty string.
+        use_pin_hole : bool, optional
+            If True, attempts to handle ROIs with holes by creating a pinhole
+            (a single continuous contour). Defaults to False.
+        approximate_contours : bool, optional
+            If False, no approximation is done during contour generation,
+            potentially resulting in very large amounts of contour data.
+            Defaults to True.
+        roi_generation_algorithm : str or int, optional
+            Identifier for the algorithm used to generate this ROI. This can be
+            a string describing the algorithm or an integer code. Defaults to 0.
+
+        Raises
+        ------
+        ROIException
+            - If the mask is not a 3D boolean array.
+            - If the mask's shape does not match the loaded DICOM series dimensions.
+            - If the mask is empty (no voxels set to True).
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        None
+            This method does not return anything, but modifies the internal RTStruct.
+        """
         """
 
         # TODO test if name already exists