Deep Learning With Ultrasound Images Enhance the Diagnosis of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver

Abstract

Objective: This research aimed to improve diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by deep learning with ultrasound Images and reduce the impact of the professional competence and personal bias of the diagnostician.

Method: Three convolutional neural network models were used to classify and identify the ultrasound images to obtain the best network. Then, the features in the ultrasound images were extracted and a new convolutional neural network was created based on the best network. Finally, the accuracy of several networks was compared and the best network was evaluated using AUC.

Results: Models of VGG16, ResNet50, and Inception-v3 were individually applied to classify and identify 710 ultrasound images containing NAFLD, demonstrating accuracies of 66.2%, 58.5%, and 59.2%, respectively. To further improve the classification accuracy, two features are presented: the ultrasound echo attenuation coefficient (θ), derived from fitting brightness values within sliding region of interest (ROIs), and the ratio of Doppler effect (ROD), identified through analyzing spots exhibiting the Doppler effect. Then, a multi-input deep learning network framework based on the VGG16 model is established, where the VGG16 model processes ultrasound image, while the fully connected layers handle θ and ROD. Ultimately, these components are combined to jointly generate predictions, demonstrating robust diagnostic capabilities for moderate to severe fatty liver (AUC = 0.95). Moreover, the average accuracy is increased from 64.8% to 77.5%, attributed to the introduction of two advanced features with domain knowledge.

Conclusion: This research holds significant potential in aiding doctors for more precise and efficient diagnosis of ultrasound images related to NAFLD.

Keywords: NAFLD; ROD; attenuation coefficient; deep learning; ultrasound image.