Prediction of heart transplant rejection from routine pathology slides with self-supervised deep learning

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Tobias Paul Seraphin - , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, RWTH Aachen University (Author)
  • Mark Luedde - , Kiel University (Author)
  • Christoph Roderburg - , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Author)
  • Marko van Treeck - , University Hospital Aachen (Author)
  • Pascal Scheider - , RWTH Aachen University (Author)
  • Roman D. Buelow - , RWTH Aachen University (Author)
  • Peter Boor - , RWTH Aachen University (Author)
  • Sven H. Loosen - , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Author)
  • Zdenek Provaznik - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Daniel Mendelsohn - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Filip Berisha - , University of Hamburg, Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislaufforschung (DZHK) (Author)
  • Christina Magnussen - , University of Hamburg, Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislaufforschung (DZHK) (Author)
  • Dirk Westermann - , University of Hamburg, Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislaufforschung (DZHK) (Author)
  • Tom Luedde - , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Author)
  • Christoph Brochhausen - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Samuel Sossalla - , University of Göttingen, Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislaufforschung (DZHK), University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Jakob Nikolas Kather - , Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health, RWTH Aachen University, University of Leeds, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)

Abstract

Aims One of the most important complications of heart transplantation is organ rejection, which is diagnosed on endomyocardial biopsies by pathologists. Computer-based systems could assist in the diagnostic process and potentially improve reproducibility. Here, we evaluated the feasibility of using deep learning in predicting the degree of cellular rejection from pathology slides as defined by the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) grading system.Methods We collected 1079 histopathology slides from 325 patients from three transplant centres in Germany. We trained an at- and results tention-based deep neural network to predict rejection in the primary cohort and evaluated its performance using cross-validation and by deploying it to three cohorts. For binary prediction (rejection yes/no), the mean area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) was 0.849 in the cross-validated experiment and 0.734, 0.729, and 0.716 in external validation cohorts. For a prediction of the ISHLT grade (0R, 1R, 2/3R), AUROCs were 0.835, 0.633, and 0.905 in the cross-validated experiment and 0.764, 0.597, and 0.913; 0.631, 0.633, and 0.682; and 0.722, 0.601, and 0.805 in the validation cohorts, respectively. The predictions of the artificial intelligence model were interpretable by human experts and highlighted plausible morphological patterns. Conclusion We conclude that artificial intelligence can detect patterns of cellular transplant rejection in routine pathology, even when trained on small cohorts.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)265-274
Number of pages10
JournalEuropean Heart Journal - Digital Health
Volume4 (2023)
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 2 Mar 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

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