Improving Automated Ultrasound Infant Hip Screening Using an Integrated Clinical Classification Loss

Allison Clement, Abhinav Singh, Daniel C. Perry, Irina Voiculescu

Abstract: Angle measurements in medical imaging tasks primarily rely on landmark localisation. Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a disorder amongst infants where the hip does not form properly such that the femoral head is poorly located within the socket. The Graf method is an ultrasound-based screening technique in which lines are drawn through anatomical landmarks to characterise the deformity. The most important feature in the Graf method is an angle termed ‘alpha’, which is used to define severity and guide treatment decisions.