Jinkyeong Sung

Background/Objectives: While previous studies have evaluated AI algorithms for cervical spine fracture (CSFx) detection on CT, many have lacked validation on diverse, multinational datasets or have focused primarily on overall case-level classification This study aimed to evaluate the performance of an AI application for acute CSFx detection in case-level classification, fracture localization, and spinal level labeling on multicenter, multinational, and multivendor CT data. Methods: Non-enhanced CTs were retrospectively collected from a U.S. teleradiology company, a French teleradiology company, and a U.S. university hospital. Four radiologists independently labeled the presence and location (including the spinal level) of acute CSFx to establish the reference standard. Per-case diagnostic performance, per-bounding box positive predictive value (PPV) for localization, and overall agreement of cervical vertebral level labeling of the AI were assessed. Results: A total of 155 patients (60.6 years ± 21.2 years, 104 men) with acute CSFx and 173 patients (51.9 years ± 22.7 years, 91 men) without acute CSFx were evaluated. Data were acquired using scanners from five manufacturers. For acute CSFx diagnosis, the AI achieved a per-case sensitivity of 90.3%, a specificity of 91.9%, an accuracy of 91.2%, an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.91, and Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.82. Among 192 bounding boxes representing acute CSFx generated for 154 positive cases by the AI, 162 were true positives (per-bounding box PPV, 84.4%). Of the 186 bounding boxes for which the AI displayed cervical spinal level, 181 were labeled correctly (overall agreement, 97.3%). Conclusions: The AI application for detecting acute CSFx demonstrated high diagnostic performance on multicenter, multinational, and multivendor data, with high performance in fracture localization and spinal level labeling.

Objective To investigate diagnostic performance of a deep learning-based classification system using structural brain MRI (DLCS) for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods A single-center, case-control clinical trial was conducted. T1-weighted brain MRI scans of 188 patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia due to AD and 162 cognitively normal controls were retrospectively collected. The patients were amyloid beta (Aβ)-positive, whereas the controls were Aβ-negative, on 18F-florbetaben positron emission tomography. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated to evaluate the performance of DLCS in the classification of Aβ-positive AD patients from Aβ-negative controls. Results The DLCS was excellent in classifying AD patients from normal controls; sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for AD were 85.6% (95%CI, 79.8–90), 90.1% (95%CI, 84.5–94.2), 91.0% (95%CI, 86.3–94.1), 84.4% (95%CI, 79.2–88.5), and 0.937 (95%CI, 0.911–0.963), respectively. Conclusion The DLCS shows promise in clinical settings where it may improve early detection of AD in any individual who has undergone an MRI scan regardless of purpose. Trial registration: Korean Clinical Trials Registry, KCT0004758. Registered 21 February 2020, https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do/17665.