Deep learning-based classification of adequate sonographic images for self-diagnosing deep vein thrombosis

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 3; p. e0282747
• Main Authors: Nakayama, Yusuke, Sato, Mitsuru, Okamoto, Masashi, Kondo, Yohan, Tamura, Manami, Minagawa, Yasuko, Uchiyama, Mieko, Horii, Yosuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06.03.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Allied Health Personnel; Analysis; Automation; Biology and Life Sciences; Classification; Computer and Information Sciences; Datasets; Deep Learning; Diagnosis; Diagnostic imaging; Diagnostic systems; Disaster Victims; Disasters; Earthquakes; Engineering and Technology; Health risks; Humans; Image acquisition; Machine learning; Medical diagnosis; Medical imaging; Medical screening; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Portable equipment; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk assessment; Shelters; Technicians; Thromboembolism; Thrombosis; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonography; Ultrasound; Ultrasound imaging; Veins; Veins & arteries; Venous thrombosis; Venous Thrombosis - diagnostic imaging; Japan; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282747

Pulmonary thromboembolism is a serious disease that often occurs in disaster victims evacuated to shelters. Deep vein thrombosis is the most common reason for pulmonary thromboembolism, and early prevention is important. Medical technicians often perform ultrasonography as part of mobile medical screenings of disaster victims but reaching all isolated and scattered shelters is difficult. Therefore, deep vein thrombosis medical screening methods that can be easily performed by anyone are needed. The purpose of this study was to develop a method to automatically identify cross-sectional images suitable for deep vein thrombosis diagnosis so disaster victims can self-assess their risk of deep vein thrombosis. Ultrasonographic images of the popliteal vein were acquired in 20 subjects using stationary and portable ultrasound diagnostic equipment. Images were obtained by frame split from video. Images were classified as "Satisfactory," "Moderately satisfactory," and "Unsatisfactory" according to the level of popliteal vein visualization. Fine-tuning and classification were performed using ResNet101, a deep learning model. Acquiring images with portable ultrasound diagnostic equipment resulted in a classification accuracy of 0.76 and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.89. Acquiring images with stationary ultrasound diagnostic equipment resulted in a classification accuracy of 0.73 and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.88. A method for automatically identifying appropriate diagnostic cross-sectional ultrasonographic images of the popliteal vein was developed. This elemental technology is sufficiently accurate to automatically self-assess the risk of deep vein thrombosis by disaster victims.