CT-Free Quantitative Thyroid SPECT Based on Artificial Intelligence: A Prospective Multicenter Noninferiority Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND

Hybrid single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) is used for the differential diagnosis of thyrotoxicosis, but its dependence on CT and complex analysis remains debated. This study evaluated whether CT-free thyroid SPECT using artificial intelligence (AI) could substitute for conventional SPECT/CT.

METHODS

This prospective multicenter noninferiority clinical trial (KCT0008387) included 152 patients with thyrotoxicosis from three tertiary referral hospitals. A pretrained AI model generated technetium thyroid uptake (TcTU) values using SPECT images without CT. These values were compared with TcTU derived from conventional SPECT/CT. The primary endpoint was diagnostic accuracy for Graves' disease. Noninferiority was defined as a lower confidence interval (CI) limit greater than -10%. Secondary endpoints included diagnostic accuracy for destructive thyroiditis and prediction of antithyroid drug (ATD) prescription within one month.

RESULTS

Among 152 patients, 84 had Graves' disease, 45 had indeterminate disease, and 23 had thyroiditis. For Graves' disease, CT-free SPECT demonstrated 86.2% accuracy compared with 85.5% for conventional SPECT/CT. The lower bound of the CI of the accuracy difference was -3.0%, meeting the prespecified noninferiority margin. For thyroiditis and ATD prescription, the lower bounds were -7.4% and -3.2%, respectively. Omission of CT resulted in a 33.5% reduction of radiation exposure from 3.34 mSv to 2.22 mSv, and CT-free SPECT automatically generated TcTU values more quickly than SPECT/CT (40 minutes vs. 4 minutes).

CONCLUSIONS

CT-free SPECT using AI demonstrated noninferior diagnostic performance for thyrotoxicosis compared with conventional hybrid imaging while reducing radiation exposure and analysis time.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://cris.nih.go.kr (KCT0008387).