Comparative Risk Assessment of Clinical and Radiation Risk across a Cohort of Patient and Individualized Risk Optimization

Abstract

Purpose Informed by a recent mathematical framework, we formulated an imaging strategy to balance interpretative performance-based clinical risk (i.e., false positive and false negative rates) and radiation risk as a risk-versus-risk assessment. The model was applied to a population of one million cases simulating a clinical liver cancer scenario. Moreover, a model was developed to predict individualized risk-versus-risk optimization.

Methods The proposed model defined a Total Risk (TR) as the linear combination of radiation risk and clinical risk defined as functions of the radiation burden, the disease prevalence disease, the false positive rate, the expected life-expectancy loss for an incorrect diagnosis, and the radiologist interpretative performance (i.e., AUC). The mathematical framework was applied to a simulated dataset of 1,000,000 CT studies investigating localized stage liver cancer assuming a typical false positive rate of 5% and optimal imaging conditions (AUC=0.75). Demographic information was simulated according with literature and census data including male and female for different patient races (white, black, Asian, and Hispanic). Following BEIR-VII report, organ-specific radiation doses were used to calculate the radiation Risk Index per each patient. The model was then extended to predict the optimal scanner output associated with the TR for specific patients.

Results Across all races and sexes, median radiation risk ranged between 0.008 and 0.012 number of deaths per 100 patients; median clinical risk ranged between 0.042 and 0.076; and medial total risk ranged between 0.010 and 0.088 deaths per 100 patients. The mathematical model was then generalized to estimate individualized optimal imaging condition minimizing TR.

Conclusion A mathematical framework to describe total risk in CT was robustly tested in a simulated dataset of 1,000,000 CT studies. The results highlighted the dominance of clinical risk at typical CT examination dose levels. The generalization of the mathematical model allowed the prediction of individualized risk optimization.

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Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1002/mp.16525

Scholars@Duke

Ria

Francesco Ria

Assistant Professor of Radiology

Dr. Francesco Ria is a medical physicist and he serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology. Francesco has an extensive expertise in the assessment of procedure performances in radiology. In particular, his research activities focus on the simultaneous evaluation of radiation dose and image quality in vivo in computed tomography providing a comprehensive evaluation of radiological exams. Moreover, Francesco is developing and investigating novel mathematical models that, uniquely in the radiology field, can incorporate a comprehensive and quantitative risk-to-benefit assessment of the procedures; he is continuing to apply his expertise towards the definition of new patient specific risk metrics, and in the assessment of image quality in vivo also using state-of-the-art imaging technology, such as photon counting computed tomography scanners, and machine learning reconstruction algorithms.

Dr. Ria is a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine task group 392 (Investigation and Quality Control of Automatic Exposure Control System in CT), of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Public Education working group (WGATE), and of the Italian Association of Medical Physics task group Dose Monitoring in Diagnostic Imaging.

Erkanli

Alaattin Erkanli

Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics

Areas of research interests include Bayesian hierarchical models for longitudinal data, Bayesian optimal designs, finite mixtures and Mixtures of Dirichlet Processes, Markov transition models, nonparametrics smoothing and density estimation, survival analysis for recurrent-event data, biomarker selection and detecting early ovarian cancer.

Abadi

Ehsan Abadi

Associate Professor in Radiology

Ehsan Abadi, PhD is an imaging scientist at Duke University. He serves as an Associate Professor in the departments of Radiology and Electrical & Computer Engineering, a faculty member in the Medical Physics Graduate Program and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, and a co-Lead in the Center for Virtual Imaging Trials. Ehsan’s research focuses on quantitative imaging and optimization, computational human modeling, medical imaging simulation, and CT imaging in cardiothoracic and musculoskeletal applications. He is actively involved in developing computational anthropomorphic models with various diseases such as COPD, and scanner-specific simulation platforms (e.g., DukeSim) for imaging systems. Currently, his work is centered on identifying and optimizing imaging systems to ensure accurate and precise quantifications of lung and bone diseases.

Samei

Ehsan Samei

Reed and Martha Rice Distinguished Professor of Radiology

Dr. Ehsan Samei, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, FSPIE, FAIMBE, FIOMP, FACR is a Persian-American medical physicist. He is the Reed and Martha Rice Distinguished Professor of Radiology, and Professor of Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. He serves as the Chief Imaging Physicist for Duke University Health System, the Director of the Carl E Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories and the Center for Virtual Imaging Trials (CVIT), and co-PI of one the five Centers of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), Triangle CERSI. He is certified by the American Board of Radiology, recognized as a Distinguished Investigator by the Academy of Radiology Research, and awarded Fellow by five professional organization. He founded/co-founded the Duke Medical Physics Program, the Duke Imaging Physics Residency Program, the Duke Clinical Imaging Physics Group, the Center for Virtual Imaging Trials, and the Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP). He has held senior leadership positions in the AAPM, SPIE, SDAMPP, and RSNA, including election to the presidency of the SEAAPM (2010-2011), SDAMPP (2011), and AAPM (2023).

Dr. Samei's scientific expertise include x-ray imaging, theoretical imaging models, simulation methods, and experimental techniques in medical image formation, quantification, and perception. His research aims to bridge the gap between scientific scholarship and clinical practice, in the meaningful realization of translational research, and in clinical processes that are informed by scientific evidence. He has advanced image quality and safety metrics and radiometrics that are clinically relevant and that can be used to design, optimize, and monitor interpretive and quantitative performance of imaging techniques. These have been implemented in advanced imaging performance characterization, procedural optimization, and clinical dose and quality analytics. His most recent research interests have been virtual clinical trial across a broad spectrum of oncologic, pulmonary, cardiac, and vascular diseases, and developing methodological advances that provide smart fusions of principle-informed and AI-based, data-informed approaches to scientific inquiry.

Dr. Samei has mentored over 140 trainees (graduate and postgraduate). He has more than 1400 scientific publications including more than 360 referred journal articles, 600 conference presentations, and 4 books. Citations to his work is reflected in an h-index of 74 and a Weighted Relative Citation Ratio of 613. His laboratory of over 20 researchers has been supported continuously over two decades by 44 extramural grants, culminating in a NIH Program Project grant in 2021 to establish the national Center for Virtual Imaging Trials (CVIT), joining a small number of prominent Biomedical Technology Research Centers across the nation. In 2023, he, along with 3 other PIs, was awarded to lead one of five national Centers of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (Triangle CERSI) by the FDA.


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