Data-driven identification of diagnostically useful extrastriatal signal in dopamine transporter SPECT using explainable AI

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Mahmood Nazari - , Chair of Bioinformatics, ABX-CRO Advanced Pharmaceutical Services Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H (Author)
  • Andreas Kluge - , ABX-CRO Advanced Pharmaceutical Services Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H (Author)
  • Ivayla Apostolova - , University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf (Author)
  • Susanne Klutmann - , University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf (Author)
  • Sharok Kimiaei - , ABX-CRO Advanced Pharmaceutical Services Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H (Author)
  • Michael Schroeder - , Chair of Bioinformatics (Author)
  • Ralph Buchert - , University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf (Author)

Abstract

This study used explainable artificial intelligence for data-driven identification of extrastriatal brain regions that can contribute to the interpretation of dopamine transporter SPECT with 123I-FP-CIT in parkinsonian syndromes. A total of 1306 123I-FP-CIT-SPECT were included retrospectively. Binary classification as 'reduced' or 'normal' striatal 123I-FP-CIT uptake by an experienced reader served as standard-of-truth. A custom-made 3-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained for classification of the SPECT images with 1006 randomly selected images in three different settings: "full image", "striatum only" (3-dimensional region covering the striata cropped from the full image), "without striatum" (full image with striatal region removed). The remaining 300 SPECT images were used to test the CNN classification performance. Layer-wise relevance propagation (LRP) was used for voxelwise quantification of the relevance for the CNN-based classification in this test set. Overall accuracy of CNN-based classification was 97.0%, 95.7%, and 69.3% in the "full image", "striatum only", and "without striatum" setting. Prominent contributions in the LRP-based relevance maps beyond the striatal signal were detected in insula, amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, thalamus, anterior temporal cortex, superior frontal lobe, and pons, suggesting that 123I-FP-CIT uptake in these brain regions provides clinically useful information for the differentiation of neurodegenerative and non-neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number22932
JournalScientific reports
Volume11
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 25 Nov 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC8617288
Scopus 85119844754
ORCID /0000-0003-2848-6949/work/141543351

Keywords

Keywords

  • Brain/diagnostic imaging, Diagnosis, Differential, Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins/metabolism, Humans, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Nerve Degeneration, Neural Networks, Computer, Parkinson Disease/diagnostic imaging, Predictive Value of Tests, Radiopharmaceuticals/administration & dosage, Reproducibility of Results, Retrospective Studies, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon, Tropanes/administration & dosage