Influence of computed tomography slice thickness on deep learning-based, automatic coronary artery calcium scoring software performance

BACKGROUND: The influence of computed tomography (CT) slice thickness on the accuracy of deep learning (DL)-based, automatic coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring software has not been explored yet. METHODS: This retrospective study included 844 subjects (477 men, mean age of 58.9±10.7 years) who underwent electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated CAC scoring CT scans with 1.5 and 3 mm slice thickness values between September 2013 and October 2020. Automatic CAC scoring was performed using DL-based software (3D patch-based U-Net architectures). Manual CAC scoring was set as the reference standard. The reliability of automatic CAC scoring was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for both the 1.5 and 3 mm datasets. The agreement of CAC severity categories [Agatston score (AS) 0, 1–100, 101–400, >400] between automatic CAC scoring and the reference standard was analyzed using weighted kappa (κ) statistics for both 1.5 and 3 mm datasets. RESULTS: The CAC scoring agreement between the automatic CAC scoring and reference standard was excellent (ICC 0.982 for 1.5 mm, 0.969 for 3 mm, respectively). The categorical agreement of CAC severity between two methods was excellent for both 1.5 and 3 mm scans, with better agreement for 3 mm scans (weighted κ: 0.851 and 0.961, 95% confidence intervals: 0.823–0.879 and 0.945–0.974, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Automatic CAC scoring shows excellent agreement with the reference standard for both 1.5 and 3 mm scans but results in lower agreement in the CAC severity category for 1.5 mm scans.