Development and Validation an Integrated Deep Learning Model to Assist Eosinophilic Chronic Rhinosinusitis Diagnosis: A Multicenter Study.

Background: The assessment of eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis (eCRS) lacks accurate non-invasive preoperative prediction methods, relying primarily on invasive histopathological sections. This study aims to use computed tomography (CT) images and clinical parameters to develop an integrated deep learning model for the preoperative identification of eCRS and further explore the biological basis of its predictions.

Methods: A total of 1098 patients with sinus CT images were included from two hospitals and were divided into training, internal, and external test sets. The region of interest of sinus lesions was manually outlined by an experienced radiologist. We utilized three deep learning models (3D-ResNet, 3D-Xception, and HR-Net) to extract features from CT images and calculate deep learning scores. The clinical signature and deep learning score were inputted into a support vector machine for classification. The receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were used to evaluate the integrated deep learning model. Additionally, proteomic analysis was performed on 34 patients to explore the biological basis of the model's predictions.

Results: The area under the curve of the integrated deep learning model to predict eCRS was 0.851 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.77-0.93) and 0.821 (95% CI: 0.78-0.86) in the internal and external test sets. Proteomic analysis revealed that in patients predicted to be eCRS, 594 genes were dysregulated, and some of them were associated with pathways and biological processes such as chemokine signaling pathway.

Conclusions: The proposed integrated deep learning model could effectively predict eCRS patients. This study provided a non-invasive way of identifying eCRS to facilitate personalized therapy, which will pave the way toward precision medicine for CRS.