- Kobeissi, Hassan;
- Kallmes, David;
- Benson, John;
- Nagelschneider, Alex;
- Madhavan, Ajay;
- Messina, Steven;
- Schwartz, Kara;
- Campeau, Norbert;
- Carr, Carrie;
- Nasr, Deena;
- Braksick, Sherri;
- Scharf, Eugene;
- Klaas, James;
- Woodhead, Zoe;
- Harston, George;
- Briggs, James;
- Joly, Olivier;
- Gerry, Stephen;
- Kuhn, Anna;
- Kostas, Angelos;
- AbdalKader, Mohamad;
- Kadirvel, Ramanathan;
- Brinjikji, Waleed;
- Nael, Kambiz
BACKGROUND: The Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) is used to quantify the extent of injury to the brain following acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and to inform treatment decisions. The e-ASPECTS software uses artificial intelligence methods to automatically process non-contrast CT (NCCT) brain scans from patients with AIS affecting the middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory and generate an ASPECTS. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of e-ASPECTS (Brainomix, Oxford, UK) on the performance of US physicians compared to a consensus ground truth. METHODS: The study used a multi-reader, multi-case design. A total of 10 US board-certified physicians (neurologists and neuroradiologists) scored 54 NCCT brain scans of patients with AIS affecting the MCA territory. Each reader scored each scan on two occasions: once with and once without reference to the e-ASPECTS software, in random order. Agreement with a reference standard (expert consensus read with reference to follow-up imaging) was evaluated with and without software support. RESULTS: A comparison of the area under the curve (AUC) for each reader showed a significant improvement from 0.81 to 0.83 (p = 0.028) with the support of the e-ASPECTS tool. The agreement of reader ASPECTS scoring with the reference standard was improved with e-ASPECTS compared to unassisted reading of scans: Cohens kappa improved from 0.60 to 0.65, and the case-based weighted Kappa improved from 0.70 to 0.81. CONCLUSION: Decision support with the e-ASPECTS software significantly improves the accuracy of ASPECTS scoring, even by expert US neurologists and neuroradiologists.