Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40997007›Full record

ArticleIEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering2026

Clinically Explainable Disease Diagnosis Based on Biomarker Activation Map.

Pengxiao Zang, Carol Wang, Tristan T Hormel, Steven T Bailey, Thomas S Hwang, Yali Jia

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
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

6 authors.

Pengxiao Zang
Carol Wang
Tristan T Hormel
Steven T Bailey
Thomas S Hwang
Yali Jia

Funding

Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute - The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C)UL1TR002369 · NCATS · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI Cynthia D Morris, Christopher G. Slatore · 2017 to 2026
$78.4M
Proteomics CoreP30EY010572 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI Kate E Keller · 1995 to 2026
$19.4M
OCT Angiography for Neovascular Age-related Macular DegenerationR01EY024544 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI Steven T Bailey, Yali Jia · 2014 to 2026
$6.2M
OCTA Precursors of Vision-Threatening Complications of Diabetic RetinopathyR01EY035410 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI Thomas Hwang, Yali Jia · 2023 to 2026
$2.5M
Translational Vision Science Research at Oregon Health & Science UniversityT32EY023211 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI Yali Jia, Kate E Keller · 2013 to 2026
$2.4M
Advancing visible-light OCT in oxygen-induced retinopathyR01EY036429 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI John Peter Campbell, Yali Jia · 2024 to 2026
$2.0M
Wide-field and projection-resolved optical coherence tomography angiography in diabetic retinopathyR01EY027833 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI HWANG, THOMAS, JIA, YALI · 2017 to 2020
$1.8M
Visible-light OCT angiography, velocimetry, and oximetry for characterizing retinal vascular alterations in glaucomaR01EY031394 · NEI · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI JIA, YALI, MORRISON, JOHN C · 2020 to 2022
$1.6M
Functional Optical Coherence Tomography-derived Biomarkers for Diabetic RetinopathyDP3DK104397 · NIDDK · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · PI JIA, YALI, WILSON, DAVID J · 2014 to 2014
$1.0M
A diagnostic platform for diabetic retinopathy based on OCT angiography and artificial intelligenceR43EY036781 · NEI · IFOCUS IMAGING LLC · PI HORMEL, TRISTAN, JIA, YALI · 2024 to 2024
$306k
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR002369NEI NIH HHS P30 EY010572NEI NIH HHS R01 EY024544NEI NIH HHS R01 EY027833NEI NIH HHS R01 EY031394NEI NIH HHS R01 EY035410NEI NIH HHS R01 EY036429NEI NIH HHS R43 EY036781NEI NIH HHS T32 EY023211NIDDK NIH HHS DP3 DK104397
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveArtificial intelligence (AI)-based disease classifiers have achieved specialist-level performances in several diagnostic tasks. However, real-world adoption of these classifiers remains challenging due to the black box issue. Here, we report a novel biomarker activation map (BAM) generation framework that can provide clinically meaningful explainability to current AI-based disease classifiers.

methodsWe designed the framework based on the concept of residual counterfactual explanation by generating counterfactual outputs that could reverse the decision-making of the disease classifier. The BAM was generated as the difference map between the counterfactual output and original input with postprocessing. We evaluated the BAM on four different disease classifiers, including an age-related macular degeneration classier based on fundus photography, a diabetic retinopathy classifier based on optical coherence tomography angiography, a brain tumor classifier based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a breast cancer classifier based on computerized tomography (CT) scans.

resultsThe highlighted regions in the BAM correlated highly with manually demarcated biomarkers of each disease. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The BAM can improve the clinical applicability of an AI-based disease classifier by providing intuitive output clinicians can use to understand and verify the diagnostic decision.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceBiomarkersAlgorithmsBrain NeoplasmsBreast NeoplasmsDiabetic RetinopathyFemaleHumansMacular DegenerationMagnetic Resonance ImagingTomography, Optical CoherenceTomography, X-Ray ComputedBiomarkers

Identifiers

PMID40997007
PMCPMC13465732

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.