Computer-aided diagnosis system for thoracic computed tomography of rib fractures in older emergency patients: A preliminary study

by Shan Xiong, Wenze Wu, Sibin Liu, Jianmin Cheng, Bing Wan The peculiarities of older individuals related to osteoporosis and hyperostosis may lead to a higher rate of misdiagnosis of rib fractures on computed tomography (CT) images in older than in middle-aged/young people when using radiologist-only reading. However, none of these studies on rib fracture computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems grouped patients by age or evaluated the value of using CAD in older patients.

To address these gaps, we divided 1,012 blunt chest trauma emergency patients who underwent chest CT into middle-aged/young and older groups with a cutoff age of 60 years. CT images were read by six radiologists from three institutions (each with 7 years of experience in thoracic CT diagnosis) using two reading methods, radiologist-only and radiologist-CAD reading, to explore the value of a deep learning (DL)-based CAD system for detecting rib fractures in emergency older patients.

The final findings of the independent panel consisting of two senior radiologists with or without a thoracic surgeon were set as the reference standard.