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Impact of a Categorical AI System for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis on Breast Cancer Interpretation by Both General Radiologists and Breast Imaging Specialists

February 1, 2024
2 min

Radiology Artificial Intelligence
Jiye G. Kim, Bryan Haslam, Abdul Rahman Diab, Ashwin Sakhare, Giorgia Grisot, Hyunkwang Lee, Jacqueline Holt, Christoph I. Lee, William Lotter & A. Gregory Sorensen

Abstract

Purpose 

To evaluate performance improvements of general radiologists and breast imaging specialists when interpreting a set of diverse digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) examinations with the aid of a custom-built categorical artificial intelligence (AI) system. 

Materials and Methods 

A fully balanced multireader, multicase reader study was conducted to compare the performance of 18 radiologists (nine general radiologists and nine breast imaging specialists) reading 240 retrospectively collected screening DBT mammograms (mean patient age, 59.8 years ± 11.3 [SD]; 100% women), acquired between August 2016 and March 2019, with and without the aid of a custom-built categorical AI system. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity across general radiologists and breast imaging specialists reading with versus without AI were assessed. Reader performance was also analyzed as a function of breast cancer characteristics and patient subgroups. 

Results 

Every radiologist demonstrated improved interpretation performance when reading with versus without AI, with an average AUC of 0.93 versus 0.87, demonstrating a difference in AUC of 0.06 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.08; P < .001). Improvement in AUC was observed for both general radiologists (difference of 0.08; P < .001) and breast imaging specialists (difference of 0.04; P < .001) and across all cancer characteristics (lesion type, lesion size, and pathology) and patient subgroups (race and ethnicity, age, and breast density) examined. 

Conclusion 

A categorical AI system helped improve overall radiologist interpretation performance of DBT screening mammograms for both general radiologists and breast imaging specialists and across various patient subgroups and breast cancer characteristics. 

Disclaimers: 

Breast Suite comprises multiple applications including ProFound Pro, Breast Density, Safeguard Review, Risk Assessment, BAC and DeepHealth Viewer. DeepHealth Viewer is manufactured by eRAD, Inc. and distributed by DeepHealth, Inc.  

Any claims made about Breast Suite may reference claims associated with its individual components. 

Not all products and functionalities are commercially available in all countries. For clearance and commercial availability in your geography of functionalities listed and compatibility with other systems, please contact your account manager. 

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