1
|
Shiri I, Akhavanallaf A, Sanaat A, Salimi Y, Askari D, Mansouri Z, Shayesteh SP, Hasanian M, Rezaei-Kalantari K, Salahshour A, Sandoughdaran S, Abdollahi H, Arabi H, Zaidi H. Ultra-low-dose chest CT imaging of COVID-19 patients using a deep residual neural network. Eur Radiol 2021; 31:1420-1431. [PMID: 32879987 PMCID: PMC7467843 DOI: 10.1007/s00330-020-07225-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2020] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The current study aimed to design an ultra-low-dose CT examination protocol using a deep learning approach suitable for clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 patients. METHODS In this study, 800, 170, and 171 pairs of ultra-low-dose and full-dose CT images were used as input/output as training, test, and external validation set, respectively, to implement the full-dose prediction technique. A residual convolutional neural network was applied to generate full-dose from ultra-low-dose CT images. The quality of predicted CT images was assessed using root mean square error (RMSE), structural similarity index (SSIM), and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). Scores ranging from 1 to 5 were assigned reflecting subjective assessment of image quality and related COVID-19 features, including ground glass opacities (GGO), crazy paving (CP), consolidation (CS), nodular infiltrates (NI), bronchovascular thickening (BVT), and pleural effusion (PE). RESULTS The radiation dose in terms of CT dose index (CTDIvol) was reduced by up to 89%. The RMSE decreased from 0.16 ± 0.05 to 0.09 ± 0.02 and from 0.16 ± 0.06 to 0.08 ± 0.02 for the predicted compared with ultra-low-dose CT images in the test and external validation set, respectively. The overall scoring assigned by radiologists showed an acceptance rate of 4.72 ± 0.57 out of 5 for reference full-dose CT images, while ultra-low-dose CT images rated 2.78 ± 0.9. The predicted CT images using the deep learning algorithm achieved a score of 4.42 ± 0.8. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrated that the deep learning algorithm is capable of predicting standard full-dose CT images with acceptable quality for the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 positive patients with substantial radiation dose reduction. KEY POINTS • Ultra-low-dose CT imaging of COVID-19 patients would result in the loss of critical information about lesion types, which could potentially affect clinical diagnosis. • Deep learning-based prediction of full-dose from ultra-low-dose CT images for the diagnosis of COVID-19 could reduce the radiation dose by up to 89%. • Deep learning algorithms failed to recover the correct lesion structure/density for a number of patients considered outliers, and as such, further research and development is warranted to address these limitations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Isaac Shiri
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Azadeh Akhavanallaf
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Amirhossein Sanaat
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Yazdan Salimi
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Dariush Askari
- Department of Radiology Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical, Tehran, Iran
| | - Zahra Mansouri
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sajad P Shayesteh
- Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Medical Physics, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
| | - Mohammad Hasanian
- Department of Radiology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
| | - Kiara Rezaei-Kalantari
- Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical & Research Center, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ali Salahshour
- Department of Radiology, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
| | - Saleh Sandoughdaran
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hamid Abdollahi
- Department of Radiologic Sciences and Medical Physics, Faculty of Allied Medicine, Kerman University of Medical sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Hossein Arabi
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Habib Zaidi
- Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Geneva University Neurocenter, Geneva University, CH-1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
| |
Collapse
|