Neural network algorithm for detection of erosions and ankylosis on CT of the sacroiliac joints: multicentre development and validation of diagnostic accuracy

To evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of a deep learning network for detection of structural lesions of sacroiliitis on multicentre pelvic CT scans. Pelvic CT scans of 145 patients (81 female, 121 Ghent University/24 Alberta University, 18-87 years old, mean 40 ± 13 years, 2005-2021) with a clinical suspicion of sacroiliitis were retrospectively included. After manual sacroiliac joint (SIJ) segmentation and structural lesion annotation, a U-Net for SIJ segmentation and two separate convolutional neural networks (CNN) for erosion and ankylosis detection were trained. In-training validation and tenfold validation testing (U-Net - n = 10 × 58; CNN - n = 10 × 29) on a test dataset were performed to assess performance on a slice-by-slice and patient level (dice coefficient/accuracy/sensitivity/specificity/positive and negative predictive value/ROC AUC). Patient-level optimisation was applied to increase the performance regarding predefined statistical metrics. Gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM++) heatmap explainability analysis highlighted image parts with statistically important regions for algorithmic decisions. Regarding SIJ segmentation, a dice coefficient of 0.75 was obtained in the test dataset. For slice-by-slice structural lesion detection, a sensitivity/specificity/ROC AUC of 95%/89%/0.92 and 93%/91%/0.91 were obtained in the test dataset for erosion and ankylosis detection, respectively. For patient-level lesion detection after pipeline optimisation for predefined statistical metrics, a sensitivity/specificity of 95%/85% and 82%/97% were obtained for erosion and ankylosis detection, respectively. Grad-CAM++ explainability analysis highlighted cortical edges as focus for pipeline decisions. An optimised deep learning pipeline, including an explainability analysis, detects structural lesions of sacroiliitis on pelvic CT scans with excellent statistical performance on a slice-by-slice and patient level. An optimised deep learning pipeline, including a robust explainability analysis, detects structural lesions of sacroiliitis on pelvic CT scans with excellent statistical metrics on a slice-by-slice and patient level.