Interpretable deep learning prediction of 3d assessment of cardiac function

As deep learning plays an increasing role in making medical decisions, explainability is playing an increasing role in satisfying regulatory requirements and facilitating trust and transparency in deep learning approaches. In cardiac imaging, the task of accurately assessing left-ventricular function is crucial for evaluating patient risk, diagnosing cardiovascular disease, and clinical decision making. Previous video based methods to predict ejection fraction yield high accuracy but at the expense of explainability and did not utilize the standard clinical workflow. More explainable methods that match the clinical workflow, using 2D semantic segmentation, have been explored but found to have lower accuracy. To simultaneously increase accuracy and utilize an approach that matches the standard clinical workflow, we propose a frame-by-frame 3D depth-map approach that is both accurate (mean absolute error of 6.5%) and explainable, utilizing the conventional clinical workflow with method of discs evaluation of left ventricular volume. This method is more reproducible than human evaluation and generates volume predictions that can be interpreted by clinicians and provide the opportunity to intervene and adjust the deep learning prediction.