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Salih AM, Galazzo IB, Gkontra P, Rauseo E, Lee AM, Lekadir K, Radeva P, Petersen SE, Menegaz G. A review of evaluation approaches for explainable AI with applications in cardiology. Artif Intell Rev 2024; 57:240. [PMID: 39132011 PMCID: PMC11315784 DOI: 10.1007/s10462-024-10852-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 08/13/2024]
Abstract
Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) elucidates the decision-making process of complex AI models and is important in building trust in model predictions. XAI explanations themselves require evaluation as to accuracy and reasonableness and in the context of use of the underlying AI model. This review details the evaluation of XAI in cardiac AI applications and has found that, of the studies examined, 37% evaluated XAI quality using literature results, 11% used clinicians as domain-experts, 11% used proxies or statistical analysis, with the remaining 43% not assessing the XAI used at all. We aim to inspire additional studies within healthcare, urging researchers not only to apply XAI methods but to systematically assess the resulting explanations, as a step towards developing trustworthy and safe models. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10462-024-10852-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmed M. Salih
- William Harvey Research Institute, NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ UK
- Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Leicester, University Rd, Leicester, LE1 7RH UK
- Department of Computer Science, University of Zakho, Duhok road, Zakho, Kurdistan Iraq
| | - Ilaria Boscolo Galazzo
- Department of Engineering for Innovative Medicine, University of Verona, S. Francesco, 22, 37129 Verona, Italy
| | - Polyxeni Gkontra
- Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM), Departament de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elisa Rauseo
- William Harvey Research Institute, NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ UK
| | - Aaron Mark Lee
- William Harvey Research Institute, NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ UK
| | - Karim Lekadir
- Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM), Departament de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Petia Radeva
- Departament de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Steffen E. Petersen
- William Harvey Research Institute, NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ UK
- Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, West Smithfield, London, UK
- Health Data Research, London, UK
- Alan Turing Institute, London, UK
| | - Gloria Menegaz
- Department of Engineering for Innovative Medicine, University of Verona, S. Francesco, 22, 37129 Verona, Italy
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Goettling M, Hammer A, Malberg H, Schmidt M. xECGArch: a trustworthy deep learning architecture for interpretable ECG analysis considering short-term and long-term features. Sci Rep 2024; 14:13122. [PMID: 38849417 PMCID: PMC11161651 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63656-x] [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: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Deep learning-based methods have demonstrated high classification performance in the detection of cardiovascular diseases from electrocardiograms (ECGs). However, their blackbox character and the associated lack of interpretability limit their clinical applicability. To overcome existing limitations, we present a novel deep learning architecture for interpretable ECG analysis (xECGArch). For the first time, short- and long-term features are analyzed by two independent convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and combined into an ensemble, which is extended by methods of explainable artificial intelligence (xAI) to whiten the blackbox. To demonstrate the trustworthiness of xECGArch, perturbation analysis was used to compare 13 different xAI methods. We parameterized xECGArch for atrial fibrillation (AF) detection using four public ECG databases ( n = 9854 ECGs) and achieved an F1 score of 95.43% in AF versus non-AF classification on an unseen ECG test dataset. A systematic comparison of xAI methods showed that deep Taylor decomposition provided the most trustworthy explanations ( + 24 % compared to the second-best approach). xECGArch can account for short- and long-term features corresponding to clinical features of morphology and rhythm, respectively. Further research will focus on the relationship between xECGArch features and clinical features, which may help in medical applications for diagnosis and therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Goettling
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstr. 29, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Alexander Hammer
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstr. 29, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Hagen Malberg
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstr. 29, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Martin Schmidt
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstr. 29, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
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Li X, Cai W, Xu B, Jiang Y, Qi M, Wang M. SEResUTer: a deep learning approach for accurate ECG signal delineation and atrial fibrillation detection. Physiol Meas 2023; 44:125005. [PMID: 37827168 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6579/ad02da] [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: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
Objective.Accurate detection of electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms is crucial for computer-aided diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities. This study introduces SEResUTer, an enhanced deep learning model designed for ECG delineation and atrial fibrillation (AF) detection.Approach. Built upon a U-Net architecture, SEResUTer incorporates ResNet modules and Transformer encoders to replace convolution blocks, resulting in improved optimization and encoding capabilities. A novel masking strategy is proposed to handle incomplete expert annotations. The model is trained on the QT database (QTDB) and evaluated on the Lobachevsky University Electrocardiography Database (LUDB) to assess its generalization performance. Additionally, the model's scope is extended to AF detection using the the China Physiological Signal Challenge 2021 (CPSC2021) and the China Physiological Signal Challenge 2018 (CPSC2018) datasets.Main results.The proposed model surpasses existing traditional and deep learning approaches in ECG waveform delineation on the QTDB. It achieves remarkable average F1 scores of 99.14%, 98.48%, and 98.46% for P wave, QRS wave, and T wave delineation, respectively. Moreover, the model demonstrates exceptional generalization ability on the LUDB, achieving average SE, positive prediction rate, and F1 scores of 99.05%, 94.59%, and 94.62%, respectively. By analyzing RR interval differences and the existence of P waves, our method achieves AF identification with 99.20% accuracy on the CPSC2021 test set and demonstrates strong generalization on CPSC2018 dataset.Significance.The proposed approach enables highly accurate ECG waveform delineation and AF detection, facilitating automated analysis of large-scale ECG recordings and improving the diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyue Li
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People's Republic of China
| | - Wenjie Cai
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People's Republic of China
| | - Bolin Xu
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People's Republic of China
| | - Yupeng Jiang
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People's Republic of China
| | - Mengdi Qi
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People's Republic of China
| | - Mingjie Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bioactive Small Molecules, School of Basic Medical Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, People's Republic of China
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