Explainable Deep Fuzzy Cognitive Map Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease: Integrating Myocardial Perfusion Imaging, Clinical Data, and Natural Language Insights

Abstract

Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) has played a central role in the non-invasive identification of patients with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). Clinical factors, such as recurrent diseases, predisposing factors, and diagnostic tests, also play a vital role. However, none of these factors offer a straightforward and reliable indication, making the diagnosis of CAD a non-trivial task for nuclear medicine experts. While Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques have shown promise in this domain, their “black-box” nature remains a significant barrier to clinical adoption, a challenge that the existing literature has not yet fully addressed. This study introduces the Deep Fuzzy Cognitive Map (DeepFCM), a novel, transparent, and explainable model designed to diagnose CAD using imaging and clinical data. DeepFCM employs an inner Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify MPI polar map images. The CNN’s prediction is combined with clinical data by the FCM-based classifier to reach an outcome regarding the presence of CAD. For the initialization of interconnections among DeepFCM concepts, expert knowledge is provided. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is utilized to adjust the weight values to the correlated dataset and expert knowledge. The model’s key advantage lies in its explainability, provided through three main functionalities. First, DeepFCM integrates a Gradient Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) algorithm to highlight significant regions on the polar maps. Second, DeepFCM discloses its internal weights and their impact on the diagnostic outcome. Third, the model employs the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) version 3.5 model to generate meaningful explanations for medical staff. Our dataset comprises 594 patients, who underwent invasive coronary angiography (ICA) at the department of Nuclear Medicine of the University Hospital of Patras in Greece. As far as the classification results are concerned, DeepFCM achieved an accuracy of 83.07%, a sensitivity of 86.21%, and a specificity of 79.99%. The explainability-enhancing methods were assessed by the medical experts on the authors’ team and are presented within. The proposed framework can have immediate application in daily routines and can also serve educational purposes.

Fuzzy Cognitive Map Applications in Medicine over the Last Two Decades: A Review Study

“…Feleki et al [24] introduced a novel and transparent model called DeepFCM for diagnosing CAD using Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) and clinical data. DeepFCM combines an image classification-Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-with an FCMbased classifier for integrating clinical data.…”

“…Feleki et al [24] Proposed DeepFCM for CAD diagnosis, integrating MPI, clinical data, and natural language insights. Achieved 83.07% accuracy, 86.21% sensitivity, and 79.99% specificity.…”

“…One of the most recurrent themes is the FCM's application in diagnosing CAD. The DeepFCM [24] model integrated MPI, clinical data, and natural language insights, achieving an accuracy rate of 83.07%. However, a similar application [29] that introduced the FCM-PSO and DeepFCM for CAD classification, yielded a slightly lower accuracy of 77.95%.…”