Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33122182›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of spine surgery2020

Reliability Analysis of Deep Learning Algorithms for Reporting of Routine Lumbar MRI Scans.

Kai-Uwe Lewandrowski, Narendran Muraleedharan, Steven Allen Eddy, Vikram Sobti, Brian D Reece, Jorge Felipe Ramírez León, Sandeep Shah

Open access · diamondAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of spine surgery, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 44% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Artificial intelligence for segmentation and classification in lumbar spinal stenosis: an overview of current methods.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Kai-Uwe LewandrowskiStaff Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon Center for Advanced Spine Care of Southern Arizona and Surgical Institute of Tucson, Tucson, Arizona.
Narendran MuraleedharanAptus Engineering, Inc, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Multus Medical, LLC, Phoenix, Arizona.
Steven Allen EddyMultus Medical, LLC, Phoenix, Arizona.
Vikram SobtiInnovative Radiology, PC, River Forest, Illinois.
Brian D ReeceThe Spine and Orthopedic Academic Research Institute, Lewisville, Texas.
Jorge Felipe Ramírez LeónFundación Universitaria Sanitas, Bogotá, Colombia, Research Team, Centro de Columna. Bogotá, Colombia, Centro de Cirugía de Mínima Invasión, CECIMIN-Clínica Reina Sofía, Bogotá, Colombia.
Sandeep ShahMultus Medical, LLC, Phoenix, Arizona.
Desert Institute For Spine Care · USFundación Universitaria Sanitas · CO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundArtificial intelligence could provide more accurate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) predictors of successful clinical outcomes in targeted spine care.

objectiveTo analyze the level of agreement between lumbar MRI reports created by a deep learning neural network (RadBot) and the radiologists' MRI reading.

methodsThe compressive pathology definitions were extracted from the radiologist lumbar MRI reports from 65 patients with a total of 383 levels for the central canal: (0) no disc bulge/protrusion/canal stenosis, (1) disc bulge without canal stenosis, (2) disc bulge resulting in canal stenosis, and (3) disc herniation/protrusion/extrusion resulting in canal stenosis. For both, neural foramina were assessed with either (0) neural foraminal stenosis absent or (1) neural foramina stenosis present. Reporting criteria for the pathologies at each disc level and, when available, the grading of severity were extracted, and the Natural Language Processing model was used to generate a verbal and written report. The RadBot report was analyzed similarly as the MRI report by the radiologist. MRI reports were investigated by dichotomizing the data into 2 categories: normal and stenosis. The quality of the RadBot test was assessed by determining its sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value as well as its reliability with the calculation of the Cronbach alpha and Cohen kappa using the radiologist MRI report as a gold standard.

resultsThe authors found a RadBot sensitivity of 73.3%, a specificity of 88.4%, a positive predictive value of 80.3%, and a negative predictive value of 83.7%. The reliability analysis revealed the Cronbach alpha as 0.772. The highest individual values of the Cronbach alpha were 0.629 and 0.681 when compared to the MRI report by the radiologist, rending values of 0.566 and 0.688, respectively. Analysis of interobserver reliability rendered an overall kappa for the RadBot of 0.627. Analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) showed a value of 0.808 for the area under the ROC curve.

conclusionsDeep learning algorithms, when used for routine reporting in lumbar spine MRI, showed excellent quality as a diagnostic test that can distinguish the presence of neural element compression (stenosis) at a statistically significant level ( LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Validity, clinical teaching, and evaluation study.

Indexed as

artificial intelligencedeep neural network learningmagnetic resonance imagingreliability analysisspinal pathologies

Identifiers

PMID33122182
PMCPMC7735462
OpenAlexW3097161717

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.