Reconstruction of patient-specific confounders in AI-based radiologic image interpretation using generative pretraining.

Journal: Cell reports. Medicine
Published Date: Sep 5, 2024

Abstract

Reliably detecting potentially misleading patterns in automated diagnostic assistance systems, such as those powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is crucial for instilling user trust and ensuring reliability. Current techniques fall short in visualizing such confounding factors. We propose DiffChest, a self-conditioned diffusion model trained on 515,704 chest radiographs from 194,956 patients across the US and Europe. DiffChest provides patient-specific explanations and visualizes confounding factors that might mislead the model. The high inter-reader agreement, with Fleiss' kappa values of 0.8 or higher, validates its capability to identify treatment-related confounders. Confounders are accurately detected with 10%-100% prevalence rates. The pretraining process optimizes the model for relevant imaging information, resulting in excellent diagnostic accuracy for 11 chest conditions, including pleural effusion and heart insufficiency. Our findings highlight the potential of diffusion models in medical image classification, providing insights into confounding factors and enhancing model robustness and reliability.

Authors

  • Tianyu Han
    Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. tianyu.han@pmi.rwth-aachen.de.
  • Laura Žigutytė
    Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EKFZ), Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany.
  • Luisa Huck
    From the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (F.K., G.M.F., L.H., P.S., S.K., E.B., M.S.H., F.P., M.Z., C.K., P.B., S.N., D.T.), Department of Medicine III (J.K., K.H.), and Clinic for Surgical Intensive Medicine and Intermediate Care (G.M.), University Hospital Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52064 Aachen, Germany; Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging (T.H., V.S.), and Institute of Imaging and Computer Vision (J.S.), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Department of Inner Medicine, Luisenhospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany (L.N.); and Ocumeda AG, Erlen, Switzerland (C.H.).
  • Marc Sebastian Huppertz
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Aachen University Hospital, Pauwels Street 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
  • Robert Siepmann
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
  • Yossi Gandelsman
    Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
  • Christian Blüthgen
    1 Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie, Universitätsspital Zürich.
  • Firas Khader
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
  • Christiane Kuhl
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (J.S., D.B.A., S.N.); Institute of Computer Vision and Imaging, RWTH University Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52072 Aachen, Germany (J.S., D.M.); Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany (D.T., M.P., F.M., C.K., S.N.); and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Informatics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (S.C.).
  • Sven Nebelung
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (J.S., D.B.A., S.N.); Institute of Computer Vision and Imaging, RWTH University Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52072 Aachen, Germany (J.S., D.M.); Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany (D.T., M.P., F.M., C.K., S.N.); and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Informatics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (S.C.).
  • Jakob Nikolas Kather
    Department of Medicine III, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
  • Daniel Truhn
    Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (J.S., D.B.A., S.N.); Institute of Computer Vision and Imaging, RWTH University Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52072 Aachen, Germany (J.S., D.M.); Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany (D.T., M.P., F.M., C.K., S.N.); and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Informatics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (S.C.).

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