Evaluation of the clinical application value of artificial intelligence in diagnosing head and neck aneurysms

Abstract Objective To evaluate the performance of a semi-automated artificial intelligence (AI) software program (CerebralDoc® system) in aneurysm detection and morphological measurement. Methods In this study, 354 cases of computed tomographic angiography (CTA) were retrospectively collected in our hospital. Among them, 280 cases were diagnosed with aneurysms by either digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and CTA (DSA group, n = 102), or CTA-only (non-DSA group, n = 178). The presence or absence of aneurysms, as well as their location and related morphological features determined by AI were evaluated using DSA and radiologist findings. Besides, post-processing image quality from AI and radiologists were also rated and compared. Results In the DSA group, AI achieved a sensitivity of 88.24% and an accuracy of 81.97%, whereas radiologists achieved a sensitivity of 95.10% and an accuracy of 84.43%, using DSA results as the gold standard. The AI in the non-DSA group achieved 81.46% sensitivity and 76.29% accuracy, as per the radiologists’ findings. The comparison of position consistency results showed better performance under loose criteria than strict criteria. In terms of morphological characteristics, both the DSA and the non-DSA groups agreed well with the diagnostic results for neck width and maximum diameter, demonstrating excellent ICC reliability exceeding 0.80. The AI-generated images exhibited superior quality compared to the standard software for post-processing, while also demonstrating a significantly reduced processing time. Conclusions The AI-based aneurysm detection rate demonstrates a commendable performance, while the extracted morphological parameters exhibit a remarkable consistency with those assessed by radiologists, thereby showcasing significant potential for clinical application.