Anomaly detection in chest ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT by Bayesian deep learning

To develop an anomaly detection system in PET/CT with the tracer ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) that requires only normal PET/CT images for training and can detect abnormal FDG uptake at any location in the chest region.

We trained our model based on a Bayesian deep learning framework using 1878 PET/CT scans with no abnormal findings. Our model learns the distribution of standard uptake values in these normal training images and detects out-of-normal uptake regions. We evaluated this model using 34 scans showing focal abnormal FDG uptake in the chest region. This evaluation dataset includes 28 pulmonary and 17 extrapulmonary abnormal FDG uptake foci. We performed per-voxel and per-slice receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses and per-lesion free-response receiver operating characteristic analysis.

Our model showed an area under the ROC curve of 0.992 on discriminating abnormal voxels and 0.852 on abnormal slices. Our model detected 41 of 45 (91.1%) of the abnormal FDG uptake foci with 12.8 false positives per scan (FPs/scan), which include 26 of 28 pulmonary and 15 of 17 extrapulmonary abnormalities. The sensitivity at 3.0 FPs/scan was 82.2% (37/45).

Our model trained only with normal PET/CT images successfully detected both pulmonary and extrapulmonary abnormal FDG uptake in the chest region.