{"ID":2827800,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22176","arxiv_id":"2512.22176","title":"Field strength-dependent performance variability in deep learning-based analysis of magnetic resonance imaging","abstract":"This study quantitatively evaluates the impact of MRI scanner magnetic field strength on the performance and generalizability of deep learning-based segmentation algorithms. Three publicly available MRI datasets (breast tumor, pancreas, and cervical spine) were stratified by scanner field strength (1.5T vs. 3.0T). For each segmentation task, three nnU-Net-based models were developed: A model trained on 1.5T data only (m-1.5T), a model trained on 3.0T data only (m-3.0T), and a model trained on pooled 1.5T and 3.0T data (m-combined). Each model was evaluated on both 1.5T and 3.0T validation sets. Field-strength-dependent performance differences were investigated via Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP)-based clustering and radiomic analysis, including 23 first-order and texture features. For breast tumor segmentation, m-3.0T (DSC: 0.494 [1.5T] and 0.433 [3.0T]) significantly outperformed m-1.5T (DSC: 0.411 [1.5T] and 0.289 [3.0T]) and m-combined (DSC: 0.373 [1.5T] and 0.268[3.0T]) on both validation sets (p\u003c0.0001). Pancreas segmentation showed similar trends: m-3.0T achieved the highest DSC (0.774 [1.5T], 0.840 [3.0T]), while m-1.5T underperformed significantly (p\u003c0.0001). For cervical spine, models performed optimally on same-field validation sets with minimal cross-field performance degradation (DSC\u003e0.92 for all comparisons). Radiomic analysis revealed moderate field-strength-dependent clustering in soft tissues (silhouette scores 0.23-0.29) but minimal separation in osseous structures (0.12). These results indicate that magnetic field strength in the training data substantially influences the performance of deep learning-based segmentation models, particularly for soft-tissue structures (e.g., small lesions). This warrants consideration of magnetic field strength as a confounding factor in studies evaluating AI performance on MRI.","short_abstract":"This study quantitatively evaluates the impact of MRI scanner magnetic field strength on the performance and generalizability of deep learning-based segmentation algorithms. Three publicly available MRI datasets (breast tumor, pancreas, and cervical spine) were stratified by scanner field strength (1.5T vs. 3.0T). For...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22176","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.22176v1","authors":"[\"Muhammad Ibtsaam Qadir\",\"Duane Schonlau\",\"Ulrike Dydak\",\"Fiona R. Kolbinger\"]","published":"2025-12-18T23:50:06Z","proceeding":"eess.IV","tasks":"[\"eess.IV\",\"cs.AI\",\"cs.CV\",\"physics.med-ph\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}