Deep learning for automatic quantification of lung abnormalities in COVID-19 patients: First experience and...

To demonstrate the first experience of a deep learning-based algorithm for automatic quantification of lung parenchymal abnormalities in chest CT of COVID-19 patients and to correlate quantitative results with clinical and laboratory parameters.

We retrospectively included 60 consecutive patients (mean age, 61 ± 12 years; 18 females) with proven COVID-19 infection undergoing chest CT between March and May 2020. Clinical and laboratory data (within 24 h before/after chest CT) were recorded. Prototype software using a deep learning algorithm was applied for automatic segmentation and quantification of lung opacities. Percentage of opacity (PO, ground-glass and consolidations) and percentage of high opacity (PHO, consolidations), were defined as 100 times the volume of segmented abnormalities divided by the volume of the lung mask.

Automatic CT analysis of the lung was feasible in all patients (n = 60). The median time to accomplish automatic evaluation was 120 s (IQR: 118-128 s). In four cases (7 %), manual corrections were necessary. Patients with need for mechanical ventilation had a significantly higher PO (median 44 %, IQR: 23-58 % versus 13 %, IQR: 10-24 %; p = 0.001) and PHO (median: 11 %, IQR: 6-21 % versus 3%, IQR: 2-7 %, p = 0.002) compared to those without. The PO and PHO moderately correlated with c-reactive protein (r = 0.49-0.60, both p < 0.001) and leucocyte count (r = 0.30-0.40, both p = 0.05). PO had a negative correlation with SO₂ (r=-0.50, p = 0.001).

Preliminary experience indicates the feasibility of a rapid, automatic quantification tool of lung parenchymal abnormalities in COVID-19 patients using deep learning, with results correlating with laboratory and clinical parameters.