Deep Learning for Automated Classification of Inferior Vena Cava Filter Types on Radiographs

PurposeTo demonstrate the feasibility and evaluate the performance of a deep-learning convolutional neural network (CNN) classification model for automated identification of different types of inferior vena cava (IVC) filters on radiographs.Materials and MethodsIn total, 1,375 cropped radiographic images of 14 types of IVC filters were collected from patients enrolled in a single-center IVC filter registry, with 139 images withheld as a test set and the remainder used to train and validate the classification model. Image brightness, contrast, intensity, and rotation were varied to augment the training set. A 50-layer ResNet architecture with fixed pre-trained weights was trained using a soft margin loss over 50 epochs. The final model was evaluated on the test set.ResultsThe CNN classification model achieved a F1 score of 0.97 (0.92–0.99) for the test set overall and of 1.00 for 10 of 14 individual filter types. Of the 139 test set images, 4 (2.9%) were misidentified, all mistaken for other filter types that appear highly similar. Heat maps elucidated salient features for each filter type that the model used for class prediction.ConclusionsA CNN classification model was successfully developed to identify 14 types of IVC filters on radiographs and demonstrated high performance. Further refinement and testing of the model is necessary before potential real-world application.