Evaluation of artificial intelligent breast ultrasound on lesion detection and characterization compared with hand-held ultrasound in asymptomatic women

Bin Xu; Weidong Luo; Xin Chen; Yiping Jia; Mengyuan Wang; Lulu Tian; Yi Liu; Bowen Lei; Jiayuan Li

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1207260

Evaluation of artificial intelligent breast ultrasound on lesion detection and characterization compared with hand-held ultrasound in asymptomatic women

Front Oncol. 2023 Jun 15:13:1207260. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1207260. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Bin Xu^{1

2}, Weidong Luo^{1

2}, Xin Chen^{1

2}, Yiping Jia^{1

2}, Mengyuan Wang^{1

2}, Lulu Tian^{1

2}, Yi Liu^{1

2}, Bowen Lei^{1

2}, Jiayuan Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
² West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Introduction: To compare the accuracy of Artificial Intelligent Breast Ultrasound (AIBUS) with hand-held breast ultrasound (HHUS) in asymptomatic women and to offer recommendations for screening in regions with limited medical resources.

Methods: 852 participants who underwent both HHUS and AIBUS were enrolled between December 2020 and June 2021. Two radiologists, who were unaware of the HHUS results, reviewed the AIBUS data and scored the image quality on a separate workstation. Breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) final recall assessment, breast density category, quantified lesion features, and examination time were evaluated for both devices. The statistical analysis included McNemar's test, paired t-test, and Wilcoxon test. The kappa coefficient and consistency rate were calculated in different subgroups.

Results: Subjective satisfaction with AIBUS image quality reached 70%. Moderate agreements were found between AIBUS with good quality images and HHUS for the BI-RADS final recall assessment (κ = 0.47, consistency rate = 73.9%) and breast density category (κ = 0.50, consistency rate = 74.8%). The lesions measured by AIBUS were statistically smaller and deeper than those measured by HHUS (P < 0.001), though they were not significant in clinical diagnosis (all < 3 mm). The total time required for the AIBUS examination and image interpretation was 1.03 (95% CI (0.57, 1.50)) minutes shorter than that of HHUS per case.

Conclusion: Moderate agreement was obtained for the description of the BI-RADS final recall assessment and breast density category. With image quality comparable to that of HHUS, AIBUS was superior for the efficiency of primary screening.

Keywords: automated breast ultrasound; breast; breast lesion; hand-held breast ultrasound; screening.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81874282]; Sichuan Health Commission Program [grant number 20PJ092]; and Sichuan Science and Technology Program [grant number 2022YFS0055]. The funders had no roles in the design and conduct of the study.