Artificial intelligence using deep learning analysis of endoscopic ultrasonography images for the differential diagnosis of pancreatic masses

BACKGROUND : There are several types of pancreatic mass, so it is important to distinguish between them before treatment. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a mathematical technique that automates learning and recognition of data patterns. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of our AI model using endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) images of multiple types of pancreatic mass (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDAC], pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma [PASC], acinar cell carcinoma [ACC], metastatic pancreatic tumor [MPT], neuroendocrine carcinoma [NEC], neuroendocrine tumor [NET], solid pseudopapillary neoplasm [SPN], chronic pancreatitis, and autoimmune pancreatitis [AIP]). METHODS : Patients who underwent EUS were included in this retrospective study. The included patients were divided into training, validation, and test cohorts. Using these cohorts, an AI model that can distinguish pancreatic carcinomas from noncarcinomatous pancreatic lesions was developed using a deep-learning architecture and the diagnostic performance of the AI model was evaluated. RESULTS : 22 000 images were generated from 933 patients. The area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (95 %CI) of the AI model for the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinomas in the test cohort were 0.90 (0.84-0.97), 0.94 (0.88-0.98), 0.82 (0.68-0.92), and 0.91 (0.85-0.95), respectively. The per-category sensitivities (95 %CI) of each disease were PDAC 0.96 (0.90-0.99), PASC 1.00 (0.05-1.00), ACC 1.00 (0.22-1.00), MPT 0.33 (0.01-0.91), NEC 1.00 (0.22-1.00), NET 0.93 (0.66-1.00), SPN 1.00 (0.22-1.00), chronic pancreatitis 0.78 (0.52-0.94), and AIP 0.73 (0.39-0.94). CONCLUSIONS : Our developed AI model can distinguish pancreatic carcinomas from noncarcinomatous pancreatic lesions, but external validation is needed.