This study introduces an ensemble framework that integrates Vision Transformer (ViT) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) models to leverage their complementary strengths, generating visualized and decision-transparent recommendations for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans from chest low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). The framework was developed using data from 321 individuals and validated with an independent test cohort of 186 individuals. It addresses two classification tasks: (1) distinguishing normal from abnormal bone mineral density (BMD) and (2) differentiating osteoporosis from non-osteoporosis. Three field-of-view (FOV) settings-fitFOV (entire vertebra), halfFOV (vertebral body only), and largeFOV (fitFOV + 20 %)-were analyzed to assess their impact on model performance. Model predictions were weighted and combined to enhance classification accuracy, and visualizations were generated to improve decision transparency. DXA scans were recommended for individuals classified as having abnormal BMD or osteoporosis. The ensemble framework significantly outperformed individual models in both classification tasks (McNemar test, p < 0.001). In the development cohort, it achieved 91.6 % accuracy for task 1 with largeFOV (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC]: 0.97) and 86.0 % accuracy for task 2 with fitFOV (AUROC: 0.94). In the test cohort, it demonstrated 86.6 % accuracy for task 1 (AUROC: 0.93) and 76.9 % accuracy for task 2 (AUROC: 0.99). DXA recommendation accuracy was 91.6 % and 87.1 % in the development and test cohorts, respectively, with notably high accuracy for osteoporosis detection (98.7 % and 100 %). This combined ViT-CNN framework effectively assesses bone status from LDCT images, particularly when utilizing fitFOV and largeFOV settings. By visualizing classification confidence and vertebral abnormalities, the proposed framework enhances decision transparency and supports clinicians in making informed DXA recommendations following opportunistic osteoporosis screening.

This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram combining ¹⁸F-FDG PET radiomics and clinical factors to non-invasively predict bone marrow involvement (BMI) in patients with lymphoma. A radiomics nomogram was developed using monocentric data, randomly divided into a training set (70%) and a test set (30%). Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) served as the gold standard for BMI diagnosis. Independent clinical risk factors were identified through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to construct a clinical model. Radiomics features were extracted from PET and CT images and selected using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, yielding a radiomics score (Rad_score) for each patient. Models based on clinical factors, CT Rad_score, and PET Rad_score were established and evaluated using eight machine learning algorithms to identify the optimal prediction model. A combined model was constructed and presented as a nomogram. Model performance was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA). A total of 160 patients were included, of whom 70 had BMI based on BMB results. The training group comprised 112 patients (BMI: 56, without BMI: 56), while the test group included 48 patients (BMI: 14, without BMI: 34). Independent risk factors, including the number of extranodal involvements and B symptoms, were incorporated into the clinical model. In the clinical model, CT Rad_score, and PET Rad_score, the AUCs in the test set were 0.820 (95% CI: 0.705-0.935), 0.538 (95% CI: 0.351-0.723), and 0.836 (95% CI: 0.686-0.986). Due to the limited diagnostic performance of CT Rad_score, the nomogram was constructed using PET Rad_score and the clinical model. The radiomics nomogram achieved AUCs of 0.916 (95% CI: 0.865-0.967) in the training set and 0.863 (95% CI: 0.763-0.964) in the test set. Calibration curves and DCA confirmed the nomogram's discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility in both sets. By integrating PET Rad_score, the number of extranodal involvements, and B symptoms, this ¹⁸F-FDG PET radiomics-based nomogram offers a non-invasive method to predict bone marrow status in lymphoma patients, providing nuclear medicine physicians with valuable decision support for pre-treatment evaluation.

Stereotactic magnetic resonance guided adaptive radiation therapy (SMART) is a new option for local treatment of unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, showing interesting survival and local control (LC) results. Despite this, some patients will experience early local and/or metastatic recurrence leading to death. We aimed to develop multiparametric prognostic models for these patients. All patients treated in our institution with SMART for an unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma between October 21, 2019, and August 5, 2022 were included. Several initial clinical characteristics as well as dosimetric data of SMART were recorded. Radiomics data from 0.35-T simulation magnetic resonance imaging were extracted. All these data were combined to build prognostic models of overall survival (OS) and LC using machine learning algorithms. Eighty-three patients with a median age of 64.9 years were included. A majority of patients had a locally advanced pancreatic cancer (77%). The median OS was 21 months after SMART completion and 27 months after chemotherapy initiation. The 6- and 12-month post-SMART OS was 87.8% (IC95%, 78.2%-93.2%) and 70.9% (IC95%, 58.8%-80.0%), respectively. The best model for OS was the Cox proportional hazard survival analysis using clinical data, with a concordance index inverse probability of censoring weighted of 0.87. Tested on its 12-month OS prediction capacity, this model had good performance (sensitivity 67%, specificity 71%, and area under the curve 0.90). The median LC was not reached. The 6- and 12-month post-SMART LC was 92.4% [IC95%, 83.7%-96.6%] and 76.3% [IC95%, 62.6%-85.5%], respectively. The best model for LC was the component-wise gradient boosting survival analysis using clinical and radiomics data, with a concordance index inverse probability of censoring weighted of 0.80. Tested on its 9-month LC prediction capacity, this model had good performance (sensitivity 50%, specificity 97%, and area under the curve 0.78). Combining clinical and radiomics data in multiparametric prognostic models using machine learning algorithms showed good performance for the prediction of OS and LC. External validation of these models will be needed.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has great ability to impact healthcare. Chest X-rays are essential for diagnosing acute thoracic conditions in the emergency department (ED), but interpretation delays due to radiologist availability can impact clinical decision-making. AI models, including deep learning algorithms, have been explored for diagnostic support, but the potential of large language models (LLMs) in emergency radiology remains largely unexamined. This study assessed ChatGPT's feasibility in interpreting chest X-rays for acute thoracic conditions commonly encountered in the ED. A subset of 1400 images from the NIH Chest X-ray dataset was analyzed, representing seven pathology categories: Atelectasis, Effusion, Emphysema, Pneumothorax, Pneumonia, Mass, and No Finding. ChatGPT 4.0, utilizing the "X-Ray Interpreter" add-on, was evaluated for its diagnostic performance across these categories. ChatGPT demonstrated high performance in identifying normal chest X-rays, with a sensitivity of 98.9 %, specificity of 93.9 %, and accuracy of 94.7 %. However, the model's performance varied across pathologies. The best results were observed in diagnosing pneumonia (sensitivity 76.2 %, specificity 93.7 %) and pneumothorax (sensitivity 77.4 %, specificity 89.1 %), while performance for atelectasis and emphysema was lower. ChatGPT demonstrates potential as a supplementary tool for differentiating normal from abnormal chest X-rays, with promising results for certain pathologies like pneumonia. However, its diagnostic accuracy for more subtle conditions requires improvement. Further research integrating ChatGPT with specialized image recognition models could enhance its performance, offering new possibilities in medical imaging and education.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) with peritoneal metastasis (PM) is associated with poor prognosis. The Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) is used to evaluate the extent of PM and to select Cytoreductive Surgery (CRS). However, PCI score is not accurate to guide patient's selection for CRS. We have developed a novel AI framework of decoupling feature alignment and fusion (DeAF) by deep learning to aid selection of PM patients and predict surgical completeness of CRS. 186 CRC patients with PM recruited from four tertiary hospitals were enrolled. In the training cohort, deep learning was used to train the DeAF model using Simsiam algorithms by contrast CT images and then fuse clinicopathological parameters to increase performance. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC by ROC were evaluated both in the internal validation cohort and three external cohorts. The DeAF model demonstrated a robust accuracy to predict the completeness of CRS with AUC of 0.9 (95 % CI: 0.793-1.000) in internal validation cohort. The model can guide selection of suitable patients and predict potential benefits from CRS. The high predictive performance in predicting CRS completeness were validated in three external cohorts with AUC values of 0.906(95 % CI: 0.812-1.000), 0.960(95 % CI: 0.885-1.000), and 0.933 (95 % CI: 0.791-1.000), respectively. The novel DeAF framework can aid surgeons to select suitable PM patients for CRS and predict the completeness of CRS. The model can change surgical decision-making and provide potential benefits for PM patients.

Approximately 20-30 % of patients with acute ischemic stroke due to lacunar infarction experience early neurological deterioration (END) within the first three days after onset, leading to disability or more severe sequelae. Hemodynamic perfusion deficits may play a crucial role in END, causing growth in the infarcted area and functional impairments, and even poor long-term prognosis. Therefore, it is vitally important to predict which patients may be at risk of perfusion deficits to initiate treatment and close monitoring early, preparing for potential reperfusion. Our goal is to utilize radiomic features from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and machine learning techniques to develop a predictive model for hypoperfusion. During January 2011 to December 2020, a retrospective collection of 92 patients with lacunar stroke was conducted, who underwent MRI within 48 h, had clinical laboratory values, follow-up prognosis records, and advanced perfusion image to confirm the presence of hypoperfusion. Using the initial MRI of these patients, radiomics features were extracted and selected from Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI), Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC), and Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) sequences. The data was divided into an 80 % training set and a 20 % testing set, and a hypoperfusion prediction model was developed using machine learning. Tthe model trained on DWI + FLAIR sequence showed superior performance with an accuracy of 84.1 %, AUC 0.92, recall 79.5 %, specificity 87.8 %, precision 83.8 %, and F1 score 81.2. Statistically significant clinical factors between patients with and without hypoperfusion included the NIHSS scores and the size of the lacunar infarction. Combining these two features with the top seven weighted radiomics features from DWI + FLAIR sequence, a total of nine features were used to develop a new prediction model through machine learning. This model in test set achieved an accuracy of 88.9 %, AUC 0.91, recall 87.5 %, specificity 90.0 %, precision 87.5 %, and F1 score 87.5. Utilizing radiomics techniques on DWI and FLAIR sequences from MRI of patients with lacunar stroke, it is possible to predict the presence of hypoperfusion, necessitating close monitoring to prevent the deterioration of clinical symptoms. Incorporating stroke volume and NIHSS scores into the prediction model enhances its performance. Future studies of a larger scale are required to validate these findings.

Periodontitis is a severe infection affecting oral and systemic health and is traditionally diagnosed through clinical probing-a process that is time-consuming, uncomfortable for patients, and subject to variability based on the operator's skill. We hypothesized that computer vision can be used to estimate periodontal stability from radiographs alone. At the tooth level, we used intraoral radiographs to detect and categorize individual teeth according to their periodontal stability and corresponding treatment needs: healthy (prevention), stable (maintenance), and unstable (active treatment). At the patient level, we assessed full-mouth series and classified patients as stable or unstable by the presence of at least 1 unstable tooth. Our 3-way tooth classification model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.71 for healthy teeth, 0.56 for stable, and 0.67 for unstable. The model achieved an F₁ score of 0.45 for healthy teeth, 0.57 for stable, and 0.54 for unstable (recall, 0.70). Saliency maps generated by gradient-weighted class activation mapping primarily showed highly activated areas corresponding to clinically probed regions around teeth. Our binary patient classifier achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.68 and an F₁ score of 0.74 (recall, 0.70). Taken together, our results suggest that it is feasible to estimate periodontal stability, which traditionally requires clinical and radiographic examination, from radiographic signal alone using computer vision. Variations in model performance across different classes at the tooth level indicate the necessity of further refinement.

In the past, the chest X-ray (CXR) was a traditional age and amount requirement used to assess potential mortality risk in life insurance applicants. It fell out of favor due to inconvenience to the applicant, cost, and lack of protective value. With the advent of deep learning techniques, can the results of the CXR, as a requirement, now add additional value to underwriting risk analysis?

Objective classification biomarkers that are developed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data are expected to contribute to more effective treatment for psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, no widely accepted biomarkers are available at present, partially because of the large variety of analysis pipelines for their development. In this study, we comprehensively evaluated analysis pipelines using a large-scale, multi-site fMRI dataset for major depressive disorder (MDD). We explored combinations of options in four sub-processes of the analysis pipelines: six types of brain parcellation, four types of functional connectivity (FC) estimations, three types of site-difference harmonization, and five types of machine-learning methods. A total of 360 different MDD classification biomarkers were constructed using the SRPBS dataset acquired with unified protocols (713 participants from four sites) as the discovery dataset, and datasets from other projects acquired with heterogeneous protocols (449 participants from four sites) were used for independent validation. We repeated the procedure after swapping the roles of the two datasets to identify superior pipelines, regardless of the discovery dataset. The classification results of the top 10 biomarkers showed high similarity, and weight similarity was observed between eight of the biomarkers, except for two that used both data-driven parcellation and FC computation. We applied the top 10 pipelines to the datasets of other psychiatric disorders (autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia), and eight of the biomarkers exhibited sufficient classification performance for both disorders. Our results will be useful for establishing a standardized pipeline for classification biomarkers.

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is a well-established modality for noninvasive diagnostic assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the time-consuming and experience-dependent visual interpretation of SPECT images remains a limitation in the clinic. We aimed to develop advanced models to diagnose CAD using different supervised and semi-supervised deep learning (DL) algorithms and training strategies, including transfer learning and data augmentation, with SPECT-MPI and invasive coronary angiography (ICA) as standard of reference. A total of 940 patients who underwent SPECT-MPI were enrolled (281 patients included ICA). Quantitative perfusion SPECT (QPS) was used to extract polar maps of rest and stress states. We defined two different tasks, including (1) Automated CAD diagnosis with expert reader (ER) assessment of SPECT-MPI as reference, and (2) CAD diagnosis from SPECT-MPI based on reference ICA reports. In task 2, we used 6 strategies for training DL models. We implemented 13 different DL models along with 4 input types with and without data augmentation (WAug and WoAug) to train, validate, and test the DL models (728 models). One hundred patients with ICA as standard of reference (the same patients in task 1) were used to evaluate models per vessel and per patient. Metrics, such as the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and balanced accuracy were reported. DeLong and pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum tests were respectively used to compare models and strategies after 1000 bootstraps on the test data for all models. We also compared the performance of our best DL model to ER's diagnosis. In task 1, DenseNet201 Late Fusion (AUC = 0.89) and ResNet152V2 Late Fusion (AUC = 0.83) models outperformed other models in per-vessel and per-patient analyses, respectively. In task 2, the best models for CAD prediction based on ICA were Strategy 3 (a combination of ER- and ICA-based diagnosis in train data), WoAug InceptionResNetV2 EarlyFusion (AUC = 0.71), and Strategy 5 (semi-supervised approach) WoAug ResNet152V2 EarlyFusion (AUC = 0.77) in per-vessel and per-patient analyses, respectively. Moreover, saliency maps showed that models could be helpful for focusing on relevant spots for decision making. Our study confirmed the potential of DL-based analysis of SPECT-MPI polar maps in CAD diagnosis. In the automation of ER-based diagnosis, models' performance was promising showing accuracy close to expert-level analysis. It demonstrated that using different strategies of data combination, such as including those with and without ICA, along with different training methods, like semi-supervised learning, can increase the performance of DL models. The proposed DL models could be coupled with computer-aided diagnosis systems and be used as an assistant to nuclear medicine physicians to improve their diagnosis and reporting, but only in the LAD territory. Not applicable.