An Automated View Classification Model for Pediatric Echocardiography Using Artificial Intelligence.

backgroundView classification is a key step toward building a fully automated system for interpretation of echocardiograms. However, compared with adult echocardiograms, creating a view classification model for pediatric echocardiograms poses additional challenges, such as greater variation in anatomy, structure size, and views. The aim of this study was to develop a computer vision model to autonomously perform view classification on pediatric echocardiographic images.

methodsUsing a training set of 12,067 echocardiographic images from patients aged 0 to 19 years, a convolutional neural network model was trained to identify 27 preselected standard pediatric echocardiographic views which included anatomic sweeps, color Doppler, and Doppler tracings. A validation set of 6,197 images was used for parameter tuning and model selection. A test set of 9,684 images from 100 different patients was then used to evaluate model accuracy. The model was also evaluated on a per study basis using a second test set consisting of 524 echocardiograms from children with leukemia to identify six preselected views pertinent to cardiac dysfunction surveillance.

resultsThe model identified the 27 preselected views with 90.3% accuracy. Accuracy was similar across age groups (89.3% for 0-4 years, 90.8% for 4-9 years, 90.0% for 9-14 years, and 91.2% for 14-19 years; P = .12). Examining the view subtypes, accuracy was 78.3% for the cine one location, 90.5% for sweeps with color Doppler, 82.2% for sweeps without color Doppler, and 91.1% for Doppler tracings. Among the leukemia cohort, the model identified the six preselected views on a per study basis with a positive predictive value of 98.7% to 99.2% and sensitivity of 76.9% to 94.8%.

conclusionsA convolutional neural network model was constructed for view classification of pediatric echocardiograms that was accurate across the spectrum of ages and view types. This work lays the foundation for automated quantitative analysis and diagnostic support to promote efficient, accurate, and scalable analysis of pediatric echocardiograms.