Abstract 1122‐000235: Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Hemorrhage Detection in CTs and MRI Scans: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with hemorrhagic strokes accounting for 10–20% of all strokes. Patients presenting with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) often face higher rates of mortality and poorer prognosis than those with other stroke types. As ICH treatment relies on in‐hospital neuroimaging findings, one potential barrier in the effective management of ICH includes increased time to ICH detection and treatment, particularly due to delays in imaging interpretation in busy hospitals and emergency departments. Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven software has recently been developed and become commercially available for the detection of Intracranial Hemorrhage (ICH) and Chronic Cerebral Microbleeds (CMBs). Such adjunct tools may enhance patient care by decreasing time to treatment and diagnosis by helping to adjudicate diagnoses in difficult cases. This systematic review aims to describe the current literature surrounding all currently existing AI algorithms for ICH detection with either non‐contrast computed tomography (CT) scans or CMBs detection with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched for studies published through March 1st, 2021, and all studies investigating AI algorithms for hemorrhage detection in non‐contrast CT scans or CMBs detection on MRI scans were eligible for inclusion. Any studies focusing on AI for hemorrhage segmentation only, including studies that enrolled patients with hemorrhages only as their study group, were excluded. Extracted data included development methods, training, validation and testing datasets, and accuracy metrics for each algorithm, when available. Meta‐analysis was not conducted due to heterogeneity in reported accuracy metrics and highly variant algorithmic development. The completed protocol is available for review in the PROSPERO registry. Results: After the removal of duplicates, a total of 609 studies were identified and screened. After an initial screening and full text review, 40 studies were included in this review. Of these, 18 tested a 2‐Dimensional (2D) convolutional neural network (CNN) AI algorithm, 3 used a purley 3‐Dimension (3D) CNN, and 2 utilized a hybrid 2D‐3D CNN. Of note, one software was able to identify ICH in the setting of ischemic stroke using MRI scans. Included papers noted the following challenges when developing these AI algorithms: extensive time required to create suitable datasets, the volumetric nature of the imaging exams, fine tuning the system, and focusing on the reduction of false positives. Diagnostic accuracy data was available for 21 of these studies, which reported a mean accuracy of 94.37% and a mean AUC of 0.958. Conclusions: As reported in this study, many AI‐driven software tools have been developed over the last 5 years. These tools have high diagnostic accuracy on average and have the potential to contribute to the diagnosis of ICH or CMBs with expert‐level accuracy. With time to treatment often dependent on time to diagnosis, this AI software may increase both the speed and accuracy of adjudicating diagnoses. Although there have been several obstacles faced by the developers of these algorithms, AI‐driven software is an important frontier for the future of clinical medicine.

Keywords

• Hemorrhage
• Imaging
• New Innovation