China OKs AI-powered software to assist in treatment of intracranial aneurysm

Fudan University said on Thursday that an artificial intelligence-powered software to assist the examination of magnetic resonance imaging on intracranial aneurysm was recently approved by China's National Medical Products Administration for clinical use.

The research result, a collaboration of a number of institutions for six years led by professor Geng Daoying, who is deputy director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of Fudan University's Academy for Engineering and Technology, will help doctors to treat patients more quickly and accurately, and improve the diagnosis and treatment efficiency of intracranial aneurysms.

Medical experts said the prevalence of intracranial aneurysms among adults in China was 7 percent, which was two to four times that of the adult population in Europe and the United States. Moreover, the prevalence rate of high-risk groups, such as those with hypertension and diabetes, is about 15 percent in the country.

Timely diagnosis and treatment of intracranial aneurysms are of great significance for the prevention of major brain diseases, such as acute subarachnoid hemorrhage, they said. However, due to the limitation of imaging equipment and the level of imaging doctors, there exist misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis of the disease in clinical practice.

Geng, who is also the academic leader of the department of radiology at Fudan University's Huashan Hospital, said that the software can assist doctors by making measurement and analysis of the imaging.

"It can mark all the intracranial aneurysms with a diameter of 3 millimeters and above, make quantitative analysis of the aneurysm area, and give relevant recommendations," she said.

The products can not only empower doctors to be more efficient in making diagnosis, but also have higher sensitivity and specificity than doctors, said Geng.

"The results of national multi-center, retrospective clinical trial before registration showed that the software improved the detection rate of aneurysms by 10 percent, increased the diagnostic efficiency from 82 percent to 94 percent, and reading time of each case was shortened by 60 percent," she said.

The research team said that they hope the clinical application of the product can help doctors in different regions to better identify aneurysms, and narrow down the differences in imaging reading level of doctors in different regions and hospitals, so that more patients can be benefited.