Open AccessA deep neural network using audio files for detection of aortic stenosis
Author(s) -
Voigt Ingo,
Boeckmann Marc,
Bruder Oliver,
Wolf Alexander,
Schmitz Thomas,
Wieneke Heinrich
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
clinical cardiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.263
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1932-8737
pISSN - 0160-9289
DOI - 10.1002/clc.23826
Subject(s) - medicine , auscultation , stenosis , cardiology , regurgitation (circulation) , artificial neural network , stethoscope , radiology , artificial intelligence , computer science
Background Although aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease in the western world, many affected patients remain undiagnosed. Auscultation is a readily available screening tool for AS. However, it requires a high level of professional expertise. Hypothesis An AI algorithm can detect AS using audio files with the same accuracy as experienced cardiologists. Methods A deep neural network (DNN) was trained by preprocessed audio files of 100 patients with AS and 100 controls. The DNN's performance was evaluated with a test data set of 40 patients. The primary outcome measures were sensitivity, specificity, and F1‐score. Results of the DNN were compared with the performance of cardiologists, residents, and medical students. Results Eighteen percent of patients without AS and 22% of patients with AS showed an additional moderate or severe mitral regurgitation. The DNN showed a sensitivity of 0.90 (0.81–0.99), a specificity of 1, and an F1‐score of 0.95 (0.89–1.0) for the detection of AS. In comparison, we calculated an F1‐score of 0.94 (0.86–1.0) for cardiologists, 0.88 (0.78–0.98) for residents, and 0.88 (0.78–0.98) for students. Conclusions The present study shows that deep learning‐guided auscultation predicts significant AS with similar accuracy as cardiologists. The results of this pilot study suggest that AI‐assisted auscultation may help general practitioners without special cardiology training in daily practice.