Detection of maxillary sinus pathologies using deep learning algorithms

Deep learning, a subset of machine learning, is widely utilized in medical applications. Identifying maxillary sinus pathologies before surgical interventions is crucial for ensuring successful treatment outcomes. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is commonly employed for maxillary sinus evaluations due to its high resolution and lower radiation exposure. This study aims to assess the accuracy of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in detecting maxillary sinus pathologies from CBCT scans.

A dataset comprising 1000 maxillary sinuses (MS) from 500 patients was analyzed using CBCT. Sinuses were categorized based on the presence or absence of pathology, followed by segmentation of the maxillary sinus. Manual segmentation masks were generated using the semiautomatic software ITK-SNAP, which served as a reference for comparison. A convolutional neural network (CNN)-based machine learning model was then implemented to automatically segment maxillary sinus pathologies from CBCT images. To evaluate segmentation accuracy, metrics such as the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and intersection over union (IoU) were utilized by comparing AI-generated results with human-generated segmentations.

The automated segmentation model achieved a Dice score of 0.923, a recall of 0.979, an IoU of 0.887, an F1 score of 0.970, and a precision of 0.963.

This study successfully developed an AI-driven approach for segmenting maxillary sinus pathologies in CBCT images. The findings highlight the potential of this method for rapid and accurate clinical assessment of maxillary sinus conditions using CBCT imaging.