Effectively Detecting Left Bundle Branch Block False Defects in Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).

UNLABELLED: Left bundle branch block (LBBB) is a frequent source of false positive MPI reports, in patients evaluated for coronary artery disease.

PURPOSE: In this work, we evaluated the ability of a CNN-based solution, using transfer learning, to produce an expert-like judgment in recognizing LBBB false defects.

METHODS

We collected retrospectively, MPI polar maps, of patients having small to large fixed anteroseptal perfusion defect. Images were divided into two groups. The LBBB group included patients where this defect was judged as false defect by two experts. The LAD group included patients where this defect was judged as a true defect by two experts. We used a transfer learning approach on a CNN (ResNet50V2) to classify the images into two groups.

RESULTS

After 60 iterations, the reached accuracy plateau was 0.98, and the loss was 0.19 (the validation accuracy and loss were 0.91 and 0.25, respectively). A first test set of 23 images was used (11 LBBB, and 12 LAD). The empiric ROC (Receiver operating characteristic) Area was estimated at 0.98. A second test set (18x2 images) was collected after the final results. The ROC area was estimated again at 0.98.

CONCLUSION

Artificial intelligence, using CNN and transfer learning, could reproduce an expert-like judgment in differentiating between LBBB false defects, and LAD real defects.