We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
GLOBETECH PUBLISHING LLC

Download Mobile App




AI System Quickly and Automatically Evaluates Chest X-Rays for TB

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 07 Sep 2022
Image: An AI-based system has shown promise in tuberculosis detection (Photo courtesy of Pexels)
Image: An AI-based system has shown promise in tuberculosis detection (Photo courtesy of Pexels)

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease of the lungs that kills more than a million people worldwide every year. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem, with recent reports indicating that 21% fewer people received care for TB in 2020 than in 2019. Almost 90% of the active TB infections occur in about 30 countries, many with scarce resources needed to address this public health problem. Cost-effective TB screening using chest X-rays and artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve access to healthcare, particularly in difficult-to-reach populations. Now, an AI system that detects TB in chest X-rays at a level comparable to radiologists may be able to aid screening in areas with limited radiologist resources.

Scientists at Google Health AI (Mountain View, CA, USA) have developed and assessed an AI system that can quickly and automatically evaluate chest X-rays for TB. The system uses deep learning, a type of AI that can be applied to teach the computer to recognize and predict medical conditions. The researchers developed the system using data from nine countries. They then tested it on data from five countries, covering multiple high-TB-burden countries, various clinical settings and a wide range of races and ethnicities. Over 165,000 images from more than 22,000 patients were used for model development and testing.

Analysis with 14 international radiologists showed that the deep-learning method was comparable to radiologists for the determination of active TB on chest X-rays. Trends were similar across different patient subgroups, including a test set from gold miners in South Africa, a group with a high prevalence of TB, compared to the general public. If additional research supports the results, the deep-learning system could be used to automatically screen chest X-ray results for TB. People who test positive would then receive a sputum test or nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). These tests are relatively expensive, but if AI could filter the patients who need the test, the benefits would be extensive. Simulations using the deep-learning system to identify likely TB positive chest X-rays for NAAT confirmation reduced the cost by 40% to 80% per positive TB patient detected.

“We wanted to see if this system predicts TB on par with radiologists, and that’s what the study is showing,” said study co-author Rory Pilgrim, B.Eng., a product manager at Google Health AI. “AI performed really well with a variety of patients.”

“What’s especially promising in this study is that we looked at a range of different datasets that reflected the breadth of TB presentation, different equipment and different clinical workflows,” said first author Sahar Kazemzadeh, B.S., software engineer at Google Health. “We found that this deep-learning system performs really well with all of them with a single operating point that was pre-selected based on a development dataset, something that other medical imaging AI systems have found challenging.”

Related Links:
Google Health AI 

Computed Tomography System
Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition
New
Mammography System (Analog)
MAM VENUS
40/80-Slice CT System
uCT 528
Silver Member
X-Ray QA Meter
T3 AD Pro

Channels

Ultrasound

view channel
Image: The new implantable device for chronic pain management is small and flexible (Photo courtesy of The Zhou Lab at USC)

Wireless Chronic Pain Management Device to Reduce Need for Painkillers and Surgery

Chronic pain affects millions of people globally, often leading to long-term disability and dependence on opioid medications, which carry significant risks of side effects and addiction.... Read more

Nuclear Medicine

view channel
Image: The diagnostic tool could improve diagnosis and treatment decisions for patients with chronic lung infections (Photo courtesy of SNMMI)

Novel Bacteria-Specific PET Imaging Approach Detects Hard-To-Diagnose Lung Infections

Mycobacteroides abscessus is a rapidly growing mycobacteria that primarily affects immunocompromised patients and those with underlying lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary... Read more

Imaging IT

view channel
Image: The new Medical Imaging Suite makes healthcare imaging data more accessible, interoperable and useful (Photo courtesy of Google Cloud)

New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible

Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.