Diagnosis of COVID-19 using chest X-ray images based on modified DarkCovidNet model

Coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19, is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It has a direct impact on the upper and lower respiratory tract and threatened the health of many people around the world. The latest statistics show that the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 is growing exponentially. Diagnosing positive cases of COVID-19 is important for preventing further spread of the disease. Currently, Coronavirus is a serious threat to scientists, medical experts and researchers around the world from its detection to its treatment. It is currently detected using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis at the most test centers around the world. Yet, knowing the reliability of a deep learning based medical diagnosis is important for doctors to build confidence in the technology and improve treatment. The goal of this study is to develop a model that automatically identifies COVID-19 by using chest X-ray images. To achieve this, we modified the DarkCovidNet model which is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and plotted the experimental results for two scenarios: binary classification (COVID-19 versus No-findings) and multi-class classification (COVID-19 versus pneumonia versus No-findings). The model is trained on more than 10 thousand X-ray images and achieved an average accuracy of 99.53% and 94.18% for binary and multi-class classification, respectively. Therefore, the proposed method demonstrates the effectiveness of COVID-19 detection using X-ray images. Our model can be used to test the patient via cloud and also be used in situations where RT-PCR tests and other options aren't available.