Accuracy of Intra-Axial Brain Tumor Characterization in the Emergency MRI Reports: A Retrospective Human Performance Benchmarking Pilot Study




Sirén, Aapo; Turkia, Elina; Nyman, Mikko; Hirvonen, Jussi

PublisherMDPI

2024

Diagnostics

1791

14

16

2075-4418

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14161791

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/14/16/1791

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/457608063



Demand for emergency neuroimaging is increasing. Even magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is often performed outside office hours, sometimes revealing more uncommon entities like brain tumors. The scientific literature studying artificial intelligence (AI) methods for classifying brain tumors on imaging is growing, but knowledge about the radiologist’s performance on this task is surprisingly scarce. Our study aimed to tentatively fill this knowledge gap. We hypothesized that the radiologist could classify intra-axial brain tumors at the emergency department with clinically acceptable accuracy. We retrospectively examined emergency brain MRI reports from 2013 to 2021, the inclusion criteria being (1) emergency brain MRI, (2) no previously known intra-axial brain tumor, and (3) suspicion of an intra-axial brain tumor on emergency MRI report. The tumor type suggestion and the final clinical diagnosis were pooled into groups: (1) glial tumors, (2) metastasis, (3) lymphoma, and (4) other tumors. The final study sample included 150 patients, of which 108 had histopathological tumor type confirmation. Among the patients with histopathological tumor type confirmation, the accuracy of the MRI reports in classifying the tumor type was 0.86 for gliomas against other tumor types, 0.89 for metastases, and 0.99 for lymphomas. We found the result encouraging, given the prolific need for emergency imaging.


J.H. received a research grant from the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation. A.S. received a research grant from the Turku University Hospital Foundation, The Radiological Society of Finland, The Finnish Society of Emergency and Trauma Radiology, Turku University Foundation, Instrumentarium Science Foundation, Paulo Foundation, Turku University Hospital (Department of Radiology), and The Radiological Society of Southwest Finland. This funding had no role in the study design, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation, or article writing.


Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:15