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Chen JH, Zhang YQ, Zhu TT, Zhang Q, Zhao AX, Huang Y. Applying machine-learning models to differentiate benign and malignant thyroid nodules classified as C-TIRADS 4 based on 2D-ultrasound combined with five contrast-enhanced ultrasound key frames. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2024; 15:1299686. [PMID: 38633756 PMCID: PMC11021584 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1299686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Objectives To apply machine learning to extract radiomics features from thyroid two-dimensional ultrasound (2D-US) combined with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) images to classify and predict benign and malignant thyroid nodules, classified according to the Chinese version of the thyroid imaging reporting and data system (C-TIRADS) as category 4. Materials and methods This retrospective study included 313 pathologically diagnosed thyroid nodules (203 malignant and 110 benign). Two 2D-US images and five CEUS key frames ("2nd second after the arrival time" frame, "time to peak" frame, "2nd second after peak" frame, "first-flash" frame, and "second-flash" frame) were selected to manually label the region of interest using the "Labelme" tool. A total of 7 images of each nodule and their annotates were imported into the Darwin Research Platform for radiomics analysis. The datasets were randomly split into training and test cohorts in a 9:1 ratio. Six classifiers, namely, support vector machine, logistic regression, decision tree, random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision tree and extreme gradient boosting, were used to construct and test the models. Performance was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), accuracy (ACC), and F1-score were calculated. One junior radiologist and one senior radiologist reviewed the 2D-US image and CEUS videos of each nodule and made a diagnosis. We then compared their AUC and ACC with those of our best model. Results The AUC of the diagnosis of US, CEUS and US combined CEUS by junior radiologist and senior radiologist were 0.755, 0.750, 0.784, 0.800, 0.873, 0.890, respectively. The RF classifier performed better than the other five, with an AUC of 1 for the training cohort and 0.94 (95% confidence interval 0.88-1) for the test cohort. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, and F1-score of the RF model in the test cohort were 0.82, 0.93, 0.90, 0.85, 0.92, and 0.84, respectively. The RF model with 2D-US combined with CEUS key frames achieved equivalent performance as the senior radiologist (AUC: 0.94 vs. 0.92, P = 0.798; ACC: 0.90 vs. 0.92) and outperformed the junior radiologist (AUC: 0.94 vs. 0.80, P = 0.039, ACC: 0.90 vs. 0.81) in the test cohort. Conclusions Our model, based on 2D-US and CEUS key frames radiomics features, had good diagnostic efficacy for thyroid nodules, which are classified as C-TIRADS 4. It shows promising potential in assisting less experienced junior radiologists.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Ying Huang
- Department of Ultrasound, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
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Taha A, Saad B, Taha-Mehlitz S, Ochs V, El-Awar J, Mourad MM, Neumann K, Glaser C, Rosenberg R, Cattin PC. Analysis of artificial intelligence in thyroid diagnostics and surgery: A scoping review. Am J Surg 2024; 229:57-64. [PMID: 38036334 DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2023.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2023] [Revised: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Artificial Intelligence provides numerous applications in the healthcare sector. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the extent of the current application of artificial intelligence in thyroid diagnostics. METHODS Our protocol was based on the Scoping Reviews extension of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA-ScR). Information was gathered from PubMed, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases and Google Scholar. Eligible studies were published between 2017 and 2022. RESULTS The search identified 133 records, after which 18 articles were included in the scoping review. All the publications were journal articles and discussed various ways that specialists in thyroid diagnostics and surgery have utilized artificial intelligence in their practice. CONCLUSIONS The development and incorporation of Artificial Intelligence applications in thyroid diagnostics and surgery has been moderate yet promising. However, applications are currently inconsistent and further research is needed to delineate the true benefit and limitations in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anas Taha
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, 4123, Allschwil, Switzerland; Department of Surgery, Centre of Gastrointestinal Diseases, Cantonal Hospital Basel-land, Basel-Land, Switzerland.
| | - Baraa Saad
- Faculty of Medicine, St. George's University of London, London, UK
| | - Stephanie Taha-Mehlitz
- Clarunis, Department of Visceral Surgery, University Centre for Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, St. Clara Hospital and University Hospital Basel, 4002, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Vincent Ochs
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, 4123, Allschwil, Switzerland
| | - Joelle El-Awar
- Faculty of Medicine, St. George's University of London, London, UK
| | | | - Katerina Neumann
- Department of Surgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Christine Glaser
- Department of Surgery, Centre of Gastrointestinal Diseases, Cantonal Hospital Basel-land, Basel-Land, Switzerland
| | - Robert Rosenberg
- Department of Surgery, Centre of Gastrointestinal Diseases, Cantonal Hospital Basel-land, Basel-Land, Switzerland
| | - Philippe C Cattin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, 4123, Allschwil, Switzerland
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Tian R, Yu M, Liao L, Zhang C, Zhao J, Sang L, Qian W, Wang Z, Huang L, Ma H. An effective convolutional neural network for classification of benign and malignant breast and thyroid tumors from ultrasound images. Phys Eng Sci Med 2023; 46:995-1013. [PMID: 37195403 DOI: 10.1007/s13246-023-01262-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Breast and thyroid cancers are the two most common cancers among women worldwide. The early clinical diagnosis of breast and thyroid cancers often utilizes ultrasonography. Most of the ultrasound images of breast and thyroid cancer lack specificity, which reduces the accuracy of ultrasound clinical diagnosis. This study attempts to develop an effective convolutional neural network (E-CNN) for the classification of benign and malignant breast and thyroid tumors from ultrasound images. The 2-Dimension (2D) ultrasound images of 1052 breast tumors were collected, and 8245 2D tumor images were obtained from 76 thyroid cases. We performed tenfold cross-validation on breast and thyroid data, with a mean classification accuracy of 0.932 and 0.902, respectively. In addition, the proposed E-CNN was applied to classify and evaluate 9297 mixed images (breast and thyroid images). The mean classification accuracy was 0.875, and the mean area under the curve (AUC) was 0.955. Based on data in the same modality, we transferred the breast model to classify typical tumor images of 76 patients. The finetuning model achieved a mean classification accuracy of 0.945, and a mean AUC of 0.958. Meanwhile, the transfer thyroid model realized a mean classification accuracy of 0.932, and a mean AUC of 0.959, on 1052 breast tumor images. The experimental results demonstrate the ability of the E-CNN to learn the features and classify breast and thyroid tumors. Besides, it is promising to classify benign and malignant tumors from ultrasound images with the transfer model under the same modality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronghui Tian
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110169, Liaoning, China
| | - Miao Yu
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110169, Liaoning, China
| | - Lingmin Liao
- Department of Ultrasound, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi, China
- Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research, Nanchang, 330006, China
| | - Chunquan Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi, China
| | - Jiali Zhao
- Department of Ultrasound, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi, China
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi, China
- Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research, Nanchang, 330006, China
| | - Liang Sang
- Department of Ultrasound, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, Liaoning, China
| | - Wei Qian
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110169, Liaoning, China
| | - Zhiguo Wang
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, General Hospital of Northern Theatre Command, Shenyang, 110016, Liaoning, China
| | - Long Huang
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi, China.
- Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research, Nanchang, 330006, China.
| | - He Ma
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110169, Liaoning, China.
- National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute, Suzhou, 215123, China.
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Toro-Tobon D, Loor-Torres R, Duran M, Fan JW, Singh Ospina N, Wu Y, Brito JP. Artificial Intelligence in Thyroidology: A Narrative Review of the Current Applications, Associated Challenges, and Future Directions. Thyroid 2023; 33:903-917. [PMID: 37279303 PMCID: PMC10440669 DOI: 10.1089/thy.2023.0132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Background: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care has grown exponentially with the promise of facilitating biomedical research and enhancing diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, disease prevention, and health care delivery. We aim to examine the current state, limitations, and future directions of AI in thyroidology. Summary: AI has been explored in thyroidology since the 1990s, and currently, there is an increasing interest in applying AI to improve the care of patients with thyroid nodules (TNODs), thyroid cancer, and functional or autoimmune thyroid disease. These applications aim to automate processes, improve the accuracy and consistency of diagnosis, personalize treatment, decrease the burden for health care professionals, improve access to specialized care in areas lacking expertise, deepen the understanding of subtle pathophysiologic patterns, and accelerate the learning curve of less experienced clinicians. There are promising results for many of these applications. Yet, most are in the validation or early clinical evaluation stages. Only a few are currently adopted for risk stratification of TNODs by ultrasound and determination of the malignant nature of indeterminate TNODs by molecular testing. Challenges of the currently available AI applications include the lack of prospective and multicenter validations and utility studies, small and low diversity of training data sets, differences in data sources, lack of explainability, unclear clinical impact, inadequate stakeholder engagement, and inability to use outside of the research setting, which might limit the value of their future adoption. Conclusions: AI has the potential to improve many aspects of thyroidology; however, addressing the limitations affecting the suitability of AI interventions in thyroidology is a prerequisite to ensure that AI provides added value for patients with thyroid disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Toro-Tobon
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Ricardo Loor-Torres
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Mayra Duran
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Jungwei W. Fan
- Department of Artificial Intelligence and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Naykky Singh Ospina
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
| | - Yonghui Wu
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
| | - Juan P. Brito
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
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Farah L, Davaze-Schneider J, Martin T, Nguyen P, Borget I, Martelli N. Are current clinical studies on artificial intelligence-based medical devices comprehensive enough to support a full health technology assessment? A systematic review. Artif Intell Med 2023; 140:102547. [PMID: 37210155 DOI: 10.1016/j.artmed.2023.102547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Artificial Intelligence-based Medical Devices (AI-based MDs) are experiencing exponential growth in healthcare. This study aimed to investigate whether current studies assessing AI contain the information required for health technology assessment (HTA) by HTA bodies. METHODS We conducted a systematic literature review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses methodology to extract articles published between 2016 and 2021 related to the assessment of AI-based MDs. Data extraction focused on study characteristics, technology, algorithms, comparators, and results. AI quality assessment and HTA scores were calculated to evaluate whether the items present in the included studies were concordant with the HTA requirements. We performed a linear regression for the HTA and AI scores with the explanatory variables of the impact factor, publication date, and medical specialty. We conducted a univariate analysis of the HTA score and a multivariate analysis of the AI score with an alpha risk of 5 %. RESULTS Of 5578 retrieved records, 56 were included. The mean AI quality assessment score was 67 %; 32 % of articles had an AI quality score ≥ 70 %, 50 % had a score between 50 % and 70 %, and 18 % had a score under 50 %. The highest quality scores were observed for the study design (82 %) and optimisation (69 %) categories, whereas the scores were lowest in the clinical practice category (23 %). The mean HTA score was 52 % for all seven domains. 100 % of the studies assessed clinical effectiveness, whereas only 9 % evaluated safety, and 20 % evaluated economic issues. There was a statistically significant relationship between the impact factor and the HTA and AI scores (both p = 0.046). DISCUSSION Clinical studies on AI-based MDs have limitations and often lack adapted, robust, and complete evidence. High-quality datasets are also required because the output data can only be trusted if the inputs are reliable. The existing assessment frameworks are not specifically designed to assess AI-based MDs. From the perspective of regulatory authorities, we suggest that these frameworks should be adapted to assess the interpretability, explainability, cybersecurity, and safety of ongoing updates. From the perspective of HTA agencies, we highlight that transparency, professional and patient acceptance, ethical issues, and organizational changes are required for the implementation of these devices. Economic assessments of AI should rely on a robust methodology (business impact or health economic models) to provide decision-makers with more reliable evidence. CONCLUSION Currently, AI studies are insufficient to cover HTA prerequisites. HTA processes also need to be adapted because they do not consider the important specificities of AI-based MDs. Specific HTA workflows and accurate assessment tools should be designed to standardise evaluations, generate reliable evidence, and create confidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Line Farah
- Groupe de Recherche et d'accueil en Droit et Economie de la Santé (GRADES) Department, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France; Innovation Center for Medical Devices, Foch Hospital, 40 Rue Worth, 92150 Suresnes, France.
| | - Julie Davaze-Schneider
- Pharmacy Department, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, AP-HP, 20 Rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France
| | - Tess Martin
- Groupe de Recherche et d'accueil en Droit et Economie de la Santé (GRADES) Department, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France; Pharmacy Department, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, AP-HP, 20 Rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France
| | - Pierre Nguyen
- Pharmacy Department, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, AP-HP, 20 Rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France
| | - Isabelle Borget
- Groupe de Recherche et d'accueil en Droit et Economie de la Santé (GRADES) Department, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Gustave Roussy, University Paris-Saclay, 94805 Villejuif, France; Oncostat U1018, Inserm, University Paris-Saclay, Équipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Villejuif, France
| | - Nicolas Martelli
- Groupe de Recherche et d'accueil en Droit et Economie de la Santé (GRADES) Department, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France; Pharmacy Department, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, AP-HP, 20 Rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France
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The Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Diagnosis and Classification of Thyroid Nodules: An Update. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:cancers15030708. [PMID: 36765671 PMCID: PMC9913834 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15030708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The incidence of thyroid nodules diagnosed is increasing every year, leading to a greater risk of unnecessary procedures being performed or wrong diagnoses being made. In our paper, we present the latest knowledge on the use of artificial intelligence in diagnosing and classifying thyroid nodules. We particularly focus on the usefulness of artificial intelligence in ultrasonography for the diagnosis and characterization of pathology, as these are the two most developed fields. In our search of the latest innovations, we reviewed only the latest publications of specific types published from 2018 to 2022. We analyzed 930 papers in total, from which we selected 33 that were the most relevant to the topic of our work. In conclusion, there is great scope for the use of artificial intelligence in future thyroid nodule classification and diagnosis. In addition to the most typical uses of artificial intelligence in cancer differentiation, we identified several other novel applications of artificial intelligence during our review.
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Zhou L, Zheng LL, Zhang CJ, Wei HF, Xu LL, Zhang MR, Li Q, He GF, Ghamor-Amegavi EP, Li SY. Comparison of S-Detect and thyroid imaging reporting and data system classifications in the diagnosis of cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2023; 14:1098031. [PMID: 36761203 PMCID: PMC9902707 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1098031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate the value of S-Detect for predicting the malignant risk of cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules (CITNs). METHODS The preoperative prediction of 159 CITNs (Bethesda III, IV and V) were performed using S-Detect, Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System of American College of Radiology (ACR TI-RADS) and Chinese TI-RADS (C-TIRADS). First, Linear-by-Linear Association test and chi-square test were used to analyze the malignant risk of CITNs. McNemar's test and receiver operating characteristic curve were used to compare the diagnostic efficacy of S-Detect and the two TI-RADS classifications for CITNs. In addition, the McNemar's test was used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the above three methods for different pathological types of nodules. RESULTS The maximum diameter of the benign nodules was significantly larger than that of malignant nodules [0.88(0.57-1.42) vs 0.57(0.46-0.81), P=0.002]. The risk of malignant CITNs in Bethesda system and the two TI-RADS classifications increased with grade (all P for trend<0.001). In all the enrolled CITNs, the diagnostic results of S-Detect were significantly different from those of ACR TI-RADS and C-TIRADS, respectively (P=0.021 and P=0.007). The sensitivity and accuracy of S-Detect [95.9%(90.1%-98.5%) and 88.1%(81.7%-92.5%)] were higher than those of ACR TI-RADS [87.6%(80.1%-92.7%) and 81.8%(74.7%-87.3%)] (P=0.006 and P=0.021) and C-TIRADS [84.3%(76.3%-90.0%) and 78.6%(71.3%-84.5%)] (P=0.001 and P=0.001). Moreover, the negative predictive value and the area under curve value of S-Detect [82.8% (63.5%-93.5%) and 0.795%(0.724%-0.855%)] was higher than that of C-TIRADS [54.8%(38.8%-69.8%) and 0.724%(0.648%-0.792%] (P=0.024 and P=0.035). However, the specificity and positive predictive value of S-Detect were similar to those of ACR TI-RADS (P=1.000 and P=0.154) and C-TIRADS (P=1.000 and P=0.072). There was no significant difference in all the evaluated indicators between ACR TI-RADS and C-TIRADS (all P>0.05). The diagnostic accuracy of S-Detect (97.4%) for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) was higher than that of ACR TI-RADS (90.4%) and C-TIRADS (87.8%) (P=0.021 and P=0.003). CONCLUSION The diagnostic performance of S-Detect in differentiating CITNs was similar to ACR TI-RADS and superior to C-TIRADS, especially for PTC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ling Zhou
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lin-Lin Zheng
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Chuan-Ju Zhang
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Hong-Fen Wei
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Li-Long Xu
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Mu-Rui Zhang
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Qiang Li
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Gao-Fei He
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | | | - Shi-Yan Li
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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Wang S, Xu X, Du H, Chen Y, Mei W. Attention feature fusion methodology with additional constraint for ovarian lesion diagnosis on magnetic resonance images. Med Phys 2023; 50:297-310. [PMID: 35975618 DOI: 10.1002/mp.15937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2021] [Revised: 06/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE It is challenging for radiologists and gynecologists to identify the type of ovarian lesions by reading magnetic resonance (MR) images. Recently developed convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have made great progress in computer vision, but their architectures still need modification if they are used in processing medical images. This study aims to improve the feature extraction capability of CNNs, thus promoting the diagnostic performance in discriminating between benign and malignant ovarian lesions. METHODS We introduce a feature fusion architecture and insert the attention models in the neural network. The features extracted from different middle layers are integrated with reoptimized spatial and channel weights. We add a loss function to constrain the additional probability vector generated from the integrated features, thus guiding the middle layers to emphasize useful information. We analyzed 159 lesions imaged by dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging (DCE-MRI), including 73 benign lesions and 86 malignant lesions. Senior radiologists selected and labeled the tumor regions based on the pathology reports. Then, the tumor regions were cropped into 7494 nonoverlapping image patches for training and testing. The type of a single tumor was determined by the average probability scores of the image patches belonging to it. RESULTS We implemented fivefold cross-validation to characterize our proposed method, and the distribution of performance matrics was reported. For all the test image patches, the average accuracy of our method is 70.5% with an average area under the curve (AUC) of 0.785, while the baseline is 69.4% and 0.773, and for the diagnosis of single tumors, our model achieved an average accuracy of 82.4% and average AUC of 0.916, which were better than the baseline (81.8% and 0.899). Moreover, we evaluated the performance of our proposed method utilizing different CNN backbones and different attention mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS The texture features extracted from different middle layers are crucial for ovarian lesion diagnosis. Our proposed method can enhance the feature extraction capabilities of different layers of the network, thereby improving diagnostic performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuai Wang
- School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaojuan Xu
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National Cancer Center, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking, Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Huiqian Du
- School of Integrated Circuits and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Yan Chen
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National Cancer Center, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking, Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Wenbo Mei
- School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
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Zheng H, Xiao Z, Luo S, Wu S, Huang C, Hong T, He Y, Guo Y, Du G. Improve follicular thyroid carcinoma diagnosis using computer aided diagnosis system on ultrasound images. Front Oncol 2022; 12:939418. [PMID: 36465352 PMCID: PMC9709400 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.939418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE We aim to leverage deep learning to develop a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system toward helping radiologists in the diagnosis of follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) on thyroid ultrasonography. METHODS A dataset of 1159 images, consisting of 351 images from 138 FTC patients and 808 images from 274 benign follicular-pattern nodule patients, was divided into a balanced and unbalanced dataset, and used to train and test the CAD system based on a transfer learning of a residual network. Six radiologists participated in the experiments to verify whether and how much the proposed CAD system helps to improve their performance. RESULTS On the balanced dataset, the CAD system achieved 0.892 of area under the ROC (AUC). The accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score of the CAD method were 84.66%, 84.66%, 84.77%, 84.65%, while those of the junior and senior radiologists were 56.82%, 56.82%, 56.95%, 56.62% and 64.20%, 64.20%, 64.35%, 64.11% respectively. With the help of CAD, the metrics of the junior and senior radiologists improved to 62.81%, 62.81%, 62.85%, 62.79% and 73.86%, 73.86%, 74.00%, 73.83%. The results almost repeated on the unbalanced dataset. The results show the proposed CAD approach can not only achieve better performance than radiologists, but also significantly improve the radiologists' diagnosis of FTC. CONCLUSIONS The performances of the CAD system indicate it is a reliable reference for preoperative diagnosis of FTC, and might assist the development of a fast, accessible screening method for FTC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huan Zheng
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zebin Xiao
- Department of Pathology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Siwei Luo
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Suqing Wu
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chuxin Huang
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Tingting Hong
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yan He
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yanhui Guo
- Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL, United States
| | - Guoqing Du
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
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Sorrenti S, Dolcetti V, Radzina M, Bellini MI, Frezza F, Munir K, Grani G, Durante C, D’Andrea V, David E, Calò PG, Lori E, Cantisani V. Artificial Intelligence for Thyroid Nodule Characterization: Where Are We Standing? Cancers (Basel) 2022; 14:cancers14143357. [PMID: 35884418 PMCID: PMC9315681 DOI: 10.3390/cancers14143357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary In the present review, an up-to-date summary of the state of the art of artificial intelligence (AI) implementation for thyroid nodule characterization and cancer is provided. The opinion on the real effectiveness of AI systems remains controversial. Taking into consideration the largest and most scientifically valid studies, it is possible to state that AI provides results that are comparable or inferior to expert ultrasound specialists and radiologists. Promising data approve AI as a support tool and simultaneously highlight the need for a radiologist supervisory framework for AI provided results. Therefore, current solutions might be more suitable for educational purposes. Abstract Machine learning (ML) is an interdisciplinary sector in the subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that creates systems to set up logical connections using algorithms, and thus offers predictions for complex data analysis. In the present review, an up-to-date summary of the current state of the art regarding ML and AI implementation for thyroid nodule ultrasound characterization and cancer is provided, highlighting controversies over AI application as well as possible benefits of ML, such as, for example, training purposes. There is evidence that AI increases diagnostic accuracy and significantly limits inter-observer variability by using standardized mathematical algorithms. It could also be of aid in practice settings with limited sub-specialty expertise, offering a second opinion by means of radiomics and computer-assisted diagnosis. The introduction of AI represents a revolutionary event in thyroid nodule evaluation, but key issues for further implementation include integration with radiologist expertise, impact on workflow and efficiency, and performance monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Sorrenti
- Department of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (S.S.); (V.D.); (E.L.)
| | - Vincenzo Dolcetti
- Department of Radiological, Anatomo-Pathological Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (V.D.); (V.C.)
| | - Maija Radzina
- Radiology Research Laboratory, Riga Stradins University, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia;
- Medical Faculty, University of Latvia, Diagnostic Radiology Institute, Paula Stradina Clinical University Hospital, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
| | - Maria Irene Bellini
- Department of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (S.S.); (V.D.); (E.L.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Fabrizio Frezza
- Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy; (F.F.); (K.M.)
- Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Viale G.P. Usberti 181/A Sede Scientifica di Ingegneria-Palazzina 3, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Khushboo Munir
- Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy; (F.F.); (K.M.)
| | - Giorgio Grani
- Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (G.G.); (C.D.); (E.D.)
| | - Cosimo Durante
- Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (G.G.); (C.D.); (E.D.)
| | - Vito D’Andrea
- Department of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (S.S.); (V.D.); (E.L.)
| | - Emanuele David
- Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (G.G.); (C.D.); (E.D.)
| | - Pietro Giorgio Calò
- Department of Surgical Sciences, “Policlinico Universitario Duilio Casula”, University of Cagliari, 09042 Monserrato, Italy;
| | - Eleonora Lori
- Department of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (S.S.); (V.D.); (E.L.)
| | - Vito Cantisani
- Department of Radiological, Anatomo-Pathological Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy; (V.D.); (V.C.)
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A comparison of artificial intelligence versus radiologists in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules using ultrasonography: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2022; 279:5363-5373. [PMID: 35767056 DOI: 10.1007/s00405-022-07436-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Thyroid nodules are common. Ultrasonography (US) is the first investigation for thyroid nodules. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely integrated into medical diagnosis to provide additional information. The primary objective of this study was to accumulate the pooled sensitivity and specificity between all available AI and radiologists using thyroid US imaging. The secondary objective was to compare AI's diagnostic performance to that of radiologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic review meta-analysis. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library data were searched for studies from inception until June 11, 2020. RESULTS Twenty five studies were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of AI were 0.86 (95% CI 0.81-0.91) and 0.78 (95% CI 0.73-0.83), respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of radiologists were 0.85 (95% CI 0.80-0.89) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.77-0.86), respectively. The accuracy of AI and radiologists is equivalent in terms of AUC [AI 0.89 (95% CI 0.86-0.92), radiologist 0.91 (95% CI 0.88-0.93)]. The diagnostic odd ratio (DOR) between AI 23.10 (95% CI 14.20-37.58) and radiologists 27.12 (95% CI 17.45-42.16) had no statistically significant difference (P = 0.56). Meta-regression analysis revealed that Deep Learning AI had significantly greater sensitivity and specificity than classic machine learning AI (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION AI demonstrated comparable performance to radiologists in diagnosing benign and malignant thyroid nodules using ultrasonography. Additional research to establish its equivalency should be conducted.
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12
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Analysis of the Application Value of Ultrasound Imaging Diagnosis in the Clinical Staging of Thyroid Cancer. JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2022; 2022:8030262. [PMID: 35720223 PMCID: PMC9200573 DOI: 10.1155/2022/8030262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Thyroid cancer affects 1.3 percent of the population, with rates of occurrence rising in recent years (approximately 2 percent per year). Thyroid cancer is a common endocrine cancer with an annual increase in occurrence. Although the general prognosis for differentiated subtypes is favorable, the rate of mortality linked with thyroid cancer has been steadily progressing. The presence of suspicious thyroid nodules necessitates more diagnostic testing, including laboratory evaluation, additional imaging, and biopsy. For clinical staging and appropriate patient therapy design, accurate diagnosis is necessary. In this paper, we examined the application value of ultrasound imaging diagnosis in the clinical staging of thyroid tumor in this research. The benefit of early diagnosis is determined in this article using ultrasonography reports from Chinese patients. Images of benign and malignant thyroid nodules were collected and annotated in this work, and deep learning-based image recognition and diagnostic system was built utilizing the adaptive wavelet transform-based AdaBoost algorithm (AWT-AA). The system's efficacy in diagnosing thyroid nodules was assessed, and the use of ultrasound imaging in clinical practice was studied. The variables that had a significant impact on malignant nodules were studied using logistic multiple regression analysis. The sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) categorization outcomes for benign and malignant tumors were also calculated.
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Abstract
Machine learning (ML) methods are pervading an increasing number of fields of application because of their capacity to effectively solve a wide variety of challenging problems. The employment of ML techniques in ultrasound imaging applications started several years ago but the scientific interest in this issue has increased exponentially in the last few years. The present work reviews the most recent (2019 onwards) implementations of machine learning techniques for two of the most popular ultrasound imaging fields, medical diagnostics and non-destructive evaluation. The former, which covers the major part of the review, was analyzed by classifying studies according to the human organ investigated and the methodology (e.g., detection, segmentation, and/or classification) adopted, while for the latter, some solutions to the detection/classification of material defects or particular patterns are reported. Finally, the main merits of machine learning that emerged from the study analysis are summarized and discussed.
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Cleere EF, Davey MG, O’Neill S, Corbett M, O’Donnell JP, Hacking S, Keogh IJ, Lowery AJ, Kerin MJ. Radiomic Detection of Malignancy within Thyroid Nodules Using Ultrasonography-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Diagnostics (Basel) 2022; 12:diagnostics12040794. [PMID: 35453841 PMCID: PMC9027085 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics12040794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: Despite investigation, 95% of thyroid nodules are ultimately benign. Radiomics is a field that uses radiological features to inform individualized patient care. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic utility of radiomics in classifying undetermined thyroid nodules into benign and malignant using ultrasonography (US). Methods: A diagnostic test accuracy systematic review and meta-analysis was performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Sensitivity, specificity, and area under curve (AUC) delineating benign and malignant lesions were recorded. Results: Seventy-five studies including 26,373 patients and 46,175 thyroid nodules met inclusion criteria. Males accounted for 24.6% of patients, while 75.4% of patients were female. Radiomics provided a pooled sensitivity of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.86−0.87) and a pooled specificity of 0.84 (95% CI: 0.84−0.85) for characterizing benign and malignant lesions. Using convolutional neural network (CNN) methods, pooled sensitivity was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.84−0.86) and pooled specificity was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82−0.83); significantly lower than studies using non-CNN: sensitivity 0.90 (95% CI: 0.89−0.90) and specificity 0.88 (95% CI: 0.87−0.89) (p < 0.05). The diagnostic ability of radiologists and radiomics were comparable for both sensitivity (OR 0.98) and specificity (OR 0.95). Conclusions: Radiomic analysis using US provides a reproducible, reliable evaluation of undetermined thyroid nodules when compared to current best practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eoin F. Cleere
- The Lambe Institute for Translational Research, National University of Ireland, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.G.D.); (A.J.L.); (M.J.K.)
- Department of Otolaryngology, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.C.); (I.J.K.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Matthew G. Davey
- The Lambe Institute for Translational Research, National University of Ireland, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.G.D.); (A.J.L.); (M.J.K.)
| | - Shane O’Neill
- Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland;
| | - Mel Corbett
- Department of Otolaryngology, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.C.); (I.J.K.)
| | - John P O’Donnell
- Department of Radiology, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland;
| | - Sean Hacking
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA;
| | - Ivan J. Keogh
- Department of Otolaryngology, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.C.); (I.J.K.)
| | - Aoife J. Lowery
- The Lambe Institute for Translational Research, National University of Ireland, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.G.D.); (A.J.L.); (M.J.K.)
- Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland;
| | - Michael J. Kerin
- The Lambe Institute for Translational Research, National University of Ireland, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland; (M.G.D.); (A.J.L.); (M.J.K.)
- Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Galway University Hospitals, H91 YR71 Galway, Ireland;
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Pan L, Cai Y, Lin N, Yang L, Zheng S, Huang L. A two-stage network with prior knowledge guidance for medullary thyroid carcinoma recognition in ultrasound images. Med Phys 2022; 49:2413-2426. [PMID: 35103313 DOI: 10.1002/mp.15492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2021] [Revised: 01/09/2022] [Accepted: 01/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Accurate recognition of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC) is of great importance in medical diagnosis, as MTC is rare but second-most malignant thyroid cancers with a high case-fatality ratio.[1] But there is a lower recognition rate on distinguishing MTC from other thyroid nodules in ultrasound images, even by experienced experts. This paper introduces the computer-aided method to tackle the challenge of recognizing MTC from ultrasound images, including limited MTC samples, and ambiguities among MTC, benign nodules, and Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC). METHODS The recognition of MTC based on large MTC samples of ultrasound images has never been explored, as only one existing work presented a relevant dataset with a limited 21 MTC samples. This study proposes a novel method for primarily differentiating MTC samples from benign nodules, and PTC which is the most common thyroid cancer. Our method is a two-stage schema with two important components including a cascaded coarse-to-fine segmentation network and a knowledge-based classification network. The cascaded coarse-to-fine segmentation network incorporates two U-Net++ networks for improving the segmentation results of thyroid nodules. Meanwhile, our knowledge-based classification network extracts and fuses semantic features of solid tissues and calcification for better recognizing the segmented nodules from the ultrasound images. In our experiments, Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Intersection over Union (IoU), Precision, Recall, and Hausdorff Distance (HD) are adopted for evaluating the segmentation results of thyroid nodules, and Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1-score are used for classification evaluation. RESULTS We present a well-annotated dataset including samples of 248 MTC, 240 benign nodules, and 239 PTC. For thyroid nodule segmentation, our designed cascaded segmentation network attains values of 0.776 DSC, 0.689 IoU, 0.778 Precision, and 0.821 Recall, respectively. By incorporating prior knowledge, our method achieves a mean accuracy of 82.1% in classifying thyroid nodules of MTC, PTC, and benign ones. Especially, our method gains the higher performance in recognizing MTC with an accuracy of 86.8%, compared to nearly 70% diagnosis accuracy of experienced doctors. The experimental results on our Fujian Provincial Hospital (FPH) dataset further validate the efficiency of our proposed method. CONCLUSIONS Our proposed two-stage method incorporates pipelines of thyroid nodules segmentation and classification of MTC, individually. Quantitative and qualitative results indicate that our proposed model achieves accurate segmentation of thyroid nodules. The results also validate that our learning-based framework facilitates the recognition of MTC, which gains better classification accuracy than experienced doctors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Pan
- College of Physics and Informantion Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, 350108, China
| | - Yanjing Cai
- College of Physics and Informantion Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, 350108, China
| | - Ning Lin
- Department of Ultrasound, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian, 350001, China.,Department of Ultrasound, Shengli Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fujian, 350001, China
| | - Linxin Yang
- Department of Ultrasound, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian, 350001, China.,Department of Ultrasound, Shengli Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fujian, 350001, China
| | - Shaohua Zheng
- College of Physics and Informantion Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, 350108, China
| | - Liqin Huang
- College of Physics and Informantion Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, 350108, China
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Xue Y, Zhou Y, Wang T, Chen H, Wu L, Ling H, Wang H, Qiu L, Ye D, Wang B. Accuracy of Ultrasound Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules Based on Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Diagnostic Technology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Endocrinol 2022; 2022:9492056. [PMID: 36193283 PMCID: PMC9525757 DOI: 10.1155/2022/9492056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/07/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Ultrasonography (US) is the most common method of identifying thyroid nodules, but US images require an experienced surgeon for identification. Many artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as computer-aided diagnostic systems (CAD), deep learning (DL), and machine learning (ML) have been used to assist in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, but whether AI techniques can improve the diagnostic accuracy of thyroid nodules still needs to be explored. OBJECTIVE To clarify the accuracy of AI-based thyroid nodule US images for differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules. METHODS A search strategy of "subject terms + key words" was used to search PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine (CBM), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for studies on AI-assisted diagnosis of thyroid nodules based on US images. The summarized receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve and the pooled sensitivity and specificity were used to assess the performance of the diagnostic tests. The quality assessment of diagnostics accuracy studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. The Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 15 were used to process the data. Subgroup analysis was based on the integrity of data collection. RESULTS A total of 25 studies with 17,429 US images of thyroid nodules were included. AI-assisted diagnostic techniques had better diagnostic efficacy in the diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules: sensitivity 0.88 (95% CI: (0.85-0.90)), specificity 0.81 (95% CI: 0.74-0.86), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) 30 (95% CI: 19-46). The SROC curve indicated that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89-0.94). Threshold effect analysis showed a Spearman correlation coefficient: 0.17 < 0.5, suggesting no threshold effect for the included studies. After a meta-regression analysis of 4 different subgroups, the results showed a statistically significant effect of mean age ≥50 years on heterogeneity. Compared with studies with an average age of ≥50 years, AI-assisted diagnostic techniques had higher diagnostic performance in studies with an average age of <50 years (0.89 (95% CI: 0.87-0.92) vs. 0.80 (95% CI: 0.73-0.88)), (0.83 (95% CI: 0.77-0.88) vs. 0.73 (95% CI: 0.60-0.87)). CONCLUSIONS AI-assisted diagnostic techniques had good diagnostic efficacy for thyroid nodules. For the diagnosis of <50 year olds, AI-assisted diagnostic technology was more effective in diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Xue
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Ying Zhou
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Tingrui Wang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Huijuan Chen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Lingling Wu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Huayun Ling
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Hong Wang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Lijuan Qiu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Dongqing Ye
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Bin Wang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei, Anhui, China
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Luo H, Ma L, Wu X, Tan G, Zhu H, Wu S, Li K, Yang Y, Li S. Deep learning-based ultrasonic dynamic video detection and segmentation of thyroid gland and its surrounding cervical soft tissues. Med Phys 2021; 49:382-392. [PMID: 34730231 DOI: 10.1002/mp.15332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Revised: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The prevalence of thyroid diseases has been increasing year by year. In this study, we established and validated a deep learning method (Cascade region-based convolutional neural network, R-CNN) based on ultrasound videos for automatic detection and segmentation of the thyroid gland and its surrounding tissues in order to reduce the workload of radiologists and improve the detection and diagnosis rate of thyroid disease. METHODS Seventy-one patients with normal thyroid ultrasound were included. The ultrasound videos of 59 patients were used as the training dataset, the data of 12 patients were used as the validation dataset, and in addition, the data of 9 patents were used as the testing dataset. Ultrasound videos of thyroid examination, including five standard sections (left and right lobe transverse scan, central isthmus transverse scan, left and right lobe longitudinal scan), were collected from all patients. The radiologists labeled the neck tissues, including anterior cervical muscle, cricoid cartilage, trachea, thyroid gland, endothyroid vessels, carotid artery, internal jugular vein, and esophagus. A large dataset was constructed to train and test the deep learning method. The performance was evaluated using the COCO metrics AP, AP50, and AP75. We compared the Cascade R-CNN with a state-of-the-art method CenterMask in the test dataset. RESULTS We annotated 166817, 34364, and 29227 regions in training, validation and testing samples. The model could achieve a good detection performance for the thyroid left lobe, right lobe, isthmus, muscles, trachea, carotid artery, and jugular vein; the AP50 of these tissues were 86.5%, 87.5%, 89.1%, 96.1%, 96.6%, 97.7%, and 91.8%, respectively. In addition, the model showed good segmentation performance for the muscles, trachea, and carotid artery; the AP50 of these tissues were 96%, 96.6%, and 97.8%, respectively. For the left lobe, right lobe, isthmus, esophagus, and jugular vein, AP50 was ≥86%. However, the segmentation results for the cricoid cartilage and endothyroid vessels were not high (AP50 of 53.9% and 48.5%, respectively). For fair comparison, the performance of Cascade R-CNN is better than that of CenterMask for detection and segmentation tasks. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The new method could successfully detect and segment the thyroid gland and its surrounding tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongxia Luo
- Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518000, China.,Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325000, China
| | - Laifa Ma
- The College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China
| | - Xiangqiong Wu
- The College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China
| | - Guanghua Tan
- The College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China
| | - Hui Zhu
- Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325000, China
| | - Senmin Wu
- Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325000, China
| | - Kenli Li
- The College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China
| | - Yan Yang
- Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325000, China
| | - Shengli Li
- Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518000, China
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18
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Liang X, Huang Y, Cai Y, Liao J, Chen Z. A Computer-Aided Diagnosis System and Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System for Dual Validation of Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration of Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules. Front Oncol 2021; 11:611436. [PMID: 34692466 PMCID: PMC8529148 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2021.611436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Purpose The fully automatic AI-Sonic computer-aided design (CAD) system was employed for the detection and diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of the AI-Sonic CAD system with the use of a deep learning algorithm to improve the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA). Methods A total of 138 thyroid nodules were collected from 124 patients and diagnosed by an expert, a novice, and the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS). Diagnostic efficiency and feasibility were compared among the expert, novice, and CAD system. The application of the CAD system to enhance the diagnostic efficiency of novices was assessed. Moreover, with the experience of the expert as the gold standard, the values of features detected by the CAD system were also analyzed. The efficiency of FNA was compared among the expert, novice, and CAD system to determine whether the CAD system is helpful for the management of FNA. Result In total, 56 malignant and 82 benign thyroid nodules were collected from the 124 patients (mean age, 46.4 ± 12.1 years; range, 12–70 years). The diagnostic area under the curve of the CAD system, expert, and novice were 0.919, 0.891, and 0.877, respectively (p < 0.05). In regard to feature detection, there was no significant differences in the margin and composition between the benign and malignant nodules (p > 0.05), while echogenicity and the existence of echogenic foci were of great significance (p < 0.05). For the recommendation of FNA, the results showed that the CAD system had better performance than the expert and novice (p < 0.05). Conclusions Precise diagnosis and recommendation of FNA are continuing hot topics for thyroid nodules. The CAD system based on deep learning had better accuracy and feasibility for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, and was useful to avoid unnecessary FNA. The CAD system is potentially an effective auxiliary approach for diagnosis and asymptomatic screening, especially in developing areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaowen Liang
- Department of Ultrasound Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yingmin Huang
- Department of Ultrasound Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yongyi Cai
- Department of Ultrasound, Liwan Center Hospital of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jianyi Liao
- Department of Ultrasound Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhiyi Chen
- Department of Ultrasound Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,The First Affiliated Hospital, Medical Imaging Centre, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, China
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Maleki F, Le WT, Sananmuang T, Kadoury S, Forghani R. Machine Learning Applications for Head and Neck Imaging. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 2021; 30:517-529. [PMID: 33039001 DOI: 10.1016/j.nic.2020.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The head and neck (HN) consists of a large number of vital anatomic structures within a compact area. Imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis and management of major disorders affecting the HN. This article reviews the recent applications of machine learning (ML) in HN imaging with a focus on deep learning approaches. It categorizes ML applications in HN imaging into deep learning and traditional ML applications and provides examples of each category. It also discusses the main challenges facing the successful deployment of ML-based applications in the clinical setting and provides suggestions for addressing these challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farhad Maleki
- Augmented Intelligence & Precision Health Laboratory (AIPHL), Department of Radiology & Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, 5252 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3S5, Canada
| | - William Trung Le
- Polytechnique Montreal, PO Box 6079, succ. Centre-ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3A7, Canada
| | - Thiparom Sananmuang
- Department of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiology and Research, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
| | - Samuel Kadoury
- Polytechnique Montreal, PO Box 6079, succ. Centre-ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3A7, Canada; CHUM Research Center, 900 St Denis Street, Montreal, Quebec H2X 0A9, Canada
| | - Reza Forghani
- Augmented Intelligence & Precision Health Laboratory (AIPHL), Department of Radiology & Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, 5252 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3S5, Canada; Department of Radiology, McGill University, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3G1A4, Canada; Segal Cancer Centre, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Cote Ste-Catherine Road, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada; Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Suite 720, 5100 Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec H4A3T2, Canada; Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, 1001 boul. Decarie Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec H3A 3J1, Canada.
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Li LR, Du B, Liu HQ, Chen C. Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Medicine in Thyroid Cancer: Current Status and Future Perspectives. Front Oncol 2021; 10:604051. [PMID: 33634025 PMCID: PMC7899964 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2020.604051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Thyroid cancers (TC) have increasingly been detected following advances in diagnostic methods. Risk stratification guided by refined information becomes a crucial step toward the goal of personalized medicine. The diagnosis of TC mainly relies on imaging analysis, but visual examination may not reveal much information and not enable comprehensive analysis. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology used to extract and quantify key image information by simulating complex human functions. This latent, precise information contributes to stratify TC on the distinct risk and drives tailored management to transit from the surface (population-based) to a point (individual-based). In this review, we started with several challenges regarding personalized care in TC, for example, inconsistent rating ability of ultrasound physicians, uncertainty in cytopathological diagnosis, difficulty in discriminating follicular neoplasms, and inaccurate prognostication. We then analyzed and summarized the advances of AI to extract and analyze morphological, textural, and molecular features to reveal the ground truth of TC. Consequently, their combination with AI technology will make individual medical strategies possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ling-Rui Li
- Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Bo Du
- School of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.,Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Han-Qing Liu
- Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Chuang Chen
- Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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Liu PR, Lu L, Zhang JY, Huo TT, Liu SX, Ye ZW. Application of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: An Overview. Curr Med Sci 2021; 41:1105-1115. [PMID: 34874486 PMCID: PMC8648557 DOI: 10.1007/s11596-021-2474-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new technical discipline that uses computer technology to research and develop the theory, method, technique, and application system for the simulation, extension, and expansion of human intelligence. With the assistance of new AI technology, the traditional medical environment has changed a lot. For example, a patient's diagnosis based on radiological, pathological, endoscopic, ultrasonographic, and biochemical examinations has been effectively promoted with a higher accuracy and a lower human workload. The medical treatments during the perioperative period, including the preoperative preparation, surgical period, and postoperative recovery period, have been significantly enhanced with better surgical effects. In addition, AI technology has also played a crucial role in medical drug production, medical management, and medical education, taking them into a new direction. The purpose of this review is to introduce the application of AI in medicine and to provide an outlook of future trends.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peng-ran Liu
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
| | - Lin Lu
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
| | - Jia-yao Zhang
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
| | - Tong-tong Huo
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
| | - Song-xiang Liu
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
| | - Zhe-wei Ye
- Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China
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AF-SENet: Classification of Cancer in Cervical Tissue Pathological Images Based on Fusing Deep Convolution Features. SENSORS 2020; 21:s21010122. [PMID: 33375508 PMCID: PMC7795214 DOI: 10.3390/s21010122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Revised: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 12/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world. Whole-slide images (WSIs) are an important standard for the diagnosis of cervical cancer. Missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses often occur due to the high similarity in pathological cervical images, the large number of readings, the long reading time, and the insufficient experience levels of pathologists. Existing models have insufficient feature extraction and representation capabilities, and they suffer from insufficient pathological classification. Therefore, this work first designs an image processing algorithm for data augmentation. Second, the deep convolutional features are extracted by fine-tuning pre-trained deep network models, including ResNet50 v2, DenseNet121, Inception v3, VGGNet19, and Inception-ResNet, and then local binary patterns and a histogram of the oriented gradient to extract traditional image features are used. Third, the features extracted by the fine-tuned models are serially fused according to the feature representation ability parameters and the accuracy of multiple experiments proposed in this paper, and spectral embedding is used for dimension reduction. Finally, the fused features are inputted into the Analysis of Variance-F value-Spectral Embedding Net (AF-SENet) for classification. There are four different pathological images of the dataset: normal, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), and cancer. The dataset is divided into a training set (90%) and a test set (10%). The serial fusion effect of the deep features extracted by Resnet50v2 and DenseNet121 (C5) is the best, with average classification accuracy reaching 95.33%, which is 1.07% higher than ResNet50 v2 and 1.05% higher than DenseNet121. The recognition ability is significantly improved, especially in LSIL, reaching 90.89%, which is 2.88% higher than ResNet50 v2 and 2.1% higher than DenseNet121. Thus, this method significantly improves the accuracy and generalization ability of pathological cervical WSI recognition by fusing deep features.
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