Assessments of lung nodules by an artificial intelligence chatbot using longitudinal CT images.

Journal: Cell reports. Medicine
PMID:

Abstract

Large language models have shown efficacy across multiple medical tasks. However, their value in the assessment of longitudinal follow-up computed tomography (CT) images of patients with lung nodules is unclear. In this study, we evaluate the ability of the latest generative pre-trained transformer (GPT)-4o model to assess changes in malignancy probability, size, and features of lung nodules on longitudinal CT scans from 647 patients (547 from two local centers and 100 from a public dataset). GPT-4o achieves an average accuracy of 0.88 in predicting lung nodule malignancy compared to pathological results and an average intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.91 in measuring nodule size compared with manual measurements by radiologists. Six radiologists' evaluations demonstrate GPT-4o's ability to capture changes in nodule features with a median Likert score of 4.17 (out of 5.00). In summary, GPT-4o could capture dynamic changes in lung nodules across longitudinal follow-up CT images, thus providing high-quality radiological evidence to assist in clinical management.

Authors

  • Yuqiang Mao
    Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, China.
  • Nan Xu
    Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
  • Yanan Wu
    School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong 264025, China.
  • Lu Wang
    Department of Laboratory, Akesu Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Akesu, China.
  • Hongtao Wang
  • Qianqian He
    School of Health Management, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110122, China.
  • Tianqi Zhao
    Department of Radiology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110032, China.
  • Shuangchun Ma
    Department of Radiology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110032, China.
  • Meihong Zhou
    Department of Radiology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110032, China.
  • Hongjie Jin
    Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, China.
  • Dongmei Pei
    Department of Health Management, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, China. Electronic address: peidm1111@hotmail.com.
  • Lina Zhang
    Intensive Care Unit, XiangYa Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
  • Jiangdian Song
    Sino-Dutch Biomedical and Information Engineering School, Northeastern University, Liaoning, Shenyang, 110819, China.