Detection of acute rib fractures on CT images with convolutional neural networks: effect of location and type of fracture and reader’s experience

Abstract

PurposeThe evaluation of all ribs on thin-slice CT images is time consuming and it can be difficult to accurately assess the location and type of rib fracture in an emergency. The aim of our study was to develop and validate a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm for the detection of acute rib fractures on thoracic CT images and to investigate the effect of the CNN algorithm on radiologists' performance. Methods The dataset for development of a CNN consisted of 539 thoracic CT scans with 4906 acute rib fractures. A threedimensional faster region-based CNN was trained and evaluated by using tenfold cross-validation. For an observer performance study to investigate the effect of CNN outputs on radiologists' performance, 30 thoracic CT scans (28 scans with 90 acute rib fractures and 2 without rib fractures) which were not included in the development dataset were used. Observer performance study involved eight radiologists who evaluated CT images first without and second with CNN outputs. The diagnostic performance was assessed by using figure of merit (FOM) values obtained from the jackknife free-response receiver operating characteristic (JAFROC) analysis. Results When radiologists used the CNN output for detection of rib fractures, the mean FOM value significantly increased for all readers (0.759 to 0.819, P = 0.0004) and for displaced (0.925 to 0.995, P = 0.0028) and non-displaced fractures (0.678 to 0.732, P = 0.0116). At all rib levels except for the 1st and 12th ribs, the radiologists' true-positive fraction of the detection became significantly increased by using the CNN outputs. ConclusionThe CNN specialized for the detection of acute rib fractures on CT images can improve the radiologists' diagnostic performance regardless of the type of fractures and reader's experience. Further studies are needed to clarify the usefulness of the CNN for the detection of acute rib fractures on CT images in actual clinical practice.

Oblique Axis Rib Stretch and Curved Planar Reformats in Patients for Rib Fracture Detection and Characterization: Feasibility and Clinical Application

“…However, it is relatively difficult to accurately locate the anterior, lateral, and posterior ribs with CPRs or CR method. When radiologists applied the CPRs method, there were 6 and 9 cases of rib fracture location errors by CPRs 1,2 , respectively, and the location of fracture affected the prognosis of patients [ 8 , 20 ].…”

“…However, the most clinically relevant factor is whether the fracture is displaced or not. The classification of fractures into displaced and nondisplaced fractures is essential as it provides valuable information about the type of fracture and the available treatment options [ 7 , 8 ]. Nondisplaced fractures are characterized by the absence of angulation or shortening, a fracture line width of less than 2 mm, and/or less than 1 mm displacement of the bone cortex.…”

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