1. Detection of microcalcifications in photon-counting dedicated breast-CT using a deep convolutional neural network: Proof of principle.
- Author
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Landsmann, Anna, Ruppert, Carlotta, Borkowski, Karol, Hejduk, Patryk, Ciritsis, Alexander, Wieler, Jann, Rossi, Cristina, and Boss, Andreas
- Subjects
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CONVOLUTIONAL neural networks , *PROOF of concept , *BREAST , *INTRACLASS correlation , *MAMMOGRAMS , *ARTIFICIAL intelligence - Abstract
In this study, we investigate the feasibility of a deep Convolutional Neural Network (dCNN), trained with mammographic images, to detect and classify microcalcifications (MC) in breast-CT (BCT) images. This retrospective single-center study was approved by the local ethics committee. 3518 icons generated from 319 mammograms were classified into three classes: "no MC" (1121), "probably benign MC" (1332), and "suspicious MC" (1065). A dCNN was trained (70% of data), validated (20%), and tested on a "real-world" dataset (10%). The diagnostic performance of the dCNN was tested on a subset of 60 icons, generated from 30 mammograms and 30 breast-CT images, and compared to human reading. ROC analysis was used to calculate diagnostic performance. Moreover, colored probability maps for representative BCT images were calculated using a sliding-window approach. The dCNN reached an accuracy of 98.8% on the "real-world" dataset. The accuracy on the subset of 60 icons was 100% for mammographic images, 60% for "no MC", 80% for "probably benign MC" and 100% for "suspicious MC". Intra-class correlation between the dCNN and the readers was almost perfect (0.85). Kappa values between the two readers (0.93) and the dCNN were almost perfect (reader 1: 0.85 and reader 2: 0.82). The sliding-window approach successfully detected suspicious MC with high image quality. The diagnostic performance of the dCNN to classify benign and suspicious MC was excellent with an AUC of 93.8% (95% CI 87, 4%–100%). Deep convolutional networks can be used to detect and classify benign and suspicious MC in breast-CT images. • Breast-CT is a new imaging modality, however, the lack in data can be compensated using data from mammographies for training • A dCNN trained with mammographic images can detect microcalcifications on breast-CT images with high accuracy. • Healthy tissue is often misclassified as suspicious calcifications, requiring a second reading by a radiologist for accurate diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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