Deep learning based detection of intracranial aneurysms on digital subtraction angiography: A feasibility study

Digital subtraction angiography is the gold standard for detecting and characterising aneurysms. Here, we assess the feasibility of commercial-grade deep learning software for the detection of intracranial aneurysms on whole-brain anteroposterior and lateral 2D digital subtraction angiography images.

Seven hundred and six digital subtraction angiography images were included from a cohort of 240 patients (157 female, mean age 59 years, range 20-92; 83 male, mean age 55 years, range 19-83). Three hundred and thirty-five (47%) single frame anteroposterior and lateral images of a digital subtraction angiography series of 187 aneurysms (41 ruptured, 146 unruptured; average size 7±5.3 mm, range 1-5 mm; total 372 depicted aneurysms) and 371 (53%) aneurysm-negative study images were retrospectively analysed regarding the presence of intracranial aneurysms. The 2D data was split into testing and training sets in a ratio of 4:1 with 3D rotational digital subtraction angiography as gold standard. Supervised deep learning was performed using commercial-grade machine learning software (Cognex, ViDi Suite 2.0). Monte Carlo cross validation was performed.

Intracranial aneurysms were detected with a sensitivity of 79%, a specificity of 79%, a precision of 0.75, a F1 score of 0.77, and a mean area-under-the-curve of 0.76 (range 0.68-0.86) after Monte Carlo cross-validation, run 45 times.

The commercial-grade deep learning software allows for detection of intracranial aneurysms on whole-brain, 2D anteroposterior and lateral digital subtraction angiography images, with results being comparable to more specifically engineered deep learning techniques.