A Review of Artificial Intelligence in Cerebrovascular Disease Imaging: Applications and Challenges

Background: A variety of emerging medical imaging technologies based on artificial intelligence have been widely applied in many diseases, but they are still limitedly used in the cerebrovascular field even though the diseases can lead to catastrophic consequences. Objective: This work aims to discuss the current challenges and future directions of artificial intelligence technology in cerebrovascular diseases through reviewing the existing literature related to applications in terms of computer-aided detection, prediction and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. Methods: Based on artificial intelligence applications in four representative cerebrovascular diseases including intracranial aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, arteriosclerosis and moyamoya disease, this paper systematically reviews studies published between 2006 and 2021 in five databases: National Center for Biotechnology Information, Elsevier Science Direct, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, Web of Science and Springer Link. And three refinement steps were further conducted after identifying relevant literature from these databases. Results: For the popular research topic, most of the included publications involved computer-aided detection and prediction of aneurysms, while studies about arteriovenous malformation, arteriosclerosis and moyamoya disease showed an upward trend in recent years. Both conventional machine learning and deep learning algorithms were utilized in these publications, but machine learning techniques accounted for a larger proportion. Conclusion: Algorithms related to artificial intelligence, especially deep learning, are promising tools for medical imaging analysis and will enhance the performance of computer-aided detection, prediction and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases.