Leveraging spatial dependencies and multi-scale features for automated knee injury detection on MRI diagnosis.

Background: The application of deep learning techniques in medical image analysis has shown great potential in assisting clinical diagnosis. This study focuses on the development and evaluation of deep learning models for the classification of knee joint injuries using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. The research aims to provide an efficient and reliable tool for clinicians to aid in the diagnosis of knee joint disorders, particularly focusing on Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears. Methods: KneeXNet leverages the power of graph convolutional networks (GCNs) to capture the intricate spatial dependencies and hierarchical features in knee MRI scans. The proposed model consists of three main components: a graph construction module, graph convolutional layers, and a multi-scale feature fusion module. Additionally, a contrastive learning scheme is employed to enhance the model's discriminative power and robustness. The MRNet dataset, consisting of knee MRI scans from 1,370 patients, is used to train and validate KneeXNet. Results: The performance of KneeXNet is evaluated using the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) metric and compared to state-of-the-art methods, including traditional machine learning approaches and deep learning models. KneeXNet consistently outperforms the competing methods, achieving AUC scores of 0.985, 0.972, and 0.968 for the detection of knee joint abnormalities, ACL tears, and meniscal tears, respectively. The cross-dataset evaluation further validates the generalization ability of KneeXNet, maintaining its superior performance on an independent dataset. Application: To facilitate the clinical application of KneeXNet, a user-friendly web interface is developed using the Django framework. This interface allows users to upload MRI scans, view diagnostic results, and interact with the system seamlessly. The integration of Grad-CAM visualizations enhances the interpretability of KneeXNet, enabling radiologists to understand and validate the model's decision-making process.