Multi-Reader Multi-Case Study for Performance Evaluation of High-Risk Thyroid Ultrasound with Computer-Aided Detection
Journal
Cancers
Journal Volume
12
Journal Issue
2
Date Issued
2020-02-06
Abstract
Physicians use sonographic characteristics as a reference for the possible diagnosis of thyroid cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether physicians were more effective in their tentative diagnosis based on the information provided by a computer-aided detection (CAD) system. A computer compared software-defined and physician-adjusted tumor loci. A multicenter, multireader, and multicase (MRMC) study was designed to compare clinician performance without and with the use of CAD. Interobserver variability was also analyzed. Excellent, satisfactory, and poor segmentations were observed in 25.3%, 58.9%, and 15.8% of nodules, respectively. There were 200 patients with 265 nodules in the study set. Nineteen physicians scored the malignancy potential of the nodules. The average area under the curve (AUC) of all readers was 0.728 without CAD and significantly increased to 0.792 with CAD. The average standard deviation of the malignant potential score significantly decreased from 18.97 to 16.29. The mean malignant potential score significantly decreased from 35.01 to 31.24 for benign cases. With the CAD system, an additional 7.6% of malignant nodules would be suggested for further evaluation, and biopsy would not be recommended for an additional 10.8% of benign nodules. The results demonstrated that applying a CAD system would improve clinicians' interpretations and lessen the variability in diagnosis. However, more studies are needed to explore the use of the CAD system in an actual ultrasound diagnostic situation where much more benign thyroid nodules would be seen.
Subjects
computer-aided detection; thyroid cancer; thyroid nodule; ultrasonography
Computer-aided detection; Thyroid cancer; Thyroid nodule; Ultrasonography
SDGs
Other Subjects
adolescent; adult; aged; area under the curve; Article; cancer risk; case study; child; computer aided design; computer aided detection; computer assisted diagnosis; controlled study; demography; echography; female; human; image analysis; image quality; image segmentation; major clinical study; male; multireader and multicase study; receiver operating characteristic; retrospective study; sample size; scoring system; thyroid cancer
Publisher
MDPI
Type
journal article