Imaging platform to visualize and find unruptured brain aneurysms in CTA scans

Unruptured cerebral aneurysms are increasingly identified incidentally and in noninvasive CTA studies. We performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the accuracy of the semi-automated Rapid Aneurysm software for detecting unruptured cerebral aneurysms on CTA.

Key takeaways

• Rapid Aneurysm had 95% sensitivity for detecting unruptured cerebral aneurysms in the study.
• The software had 100% specificity in the study.
• Overall accuracy was 99.7% across the vessel segments evaluated.

Can Rapid Aneurysm improve the ability of radiologists to detect unruptured cerebral aneurysms?

Imaging analysis

The study included 51 consecutive CTAs from three centers performed between January 2019 and December 2020. The unruptured aneurysms were greater than 3 mm in diameter and located in the intracranial circulation.

Four expert neuroradiologists screened the scans and established the reference standard. They were blinded to the patients' clinical history, initial CTA results and Rapid Aneurysm results.

The expert neuroradiologists identified 60 aneurysms, while Rapid Aneurysm detected 57. The software also correctly identified the absence of aneurysms in 909 vessel segments. The peer-reviewed study reported:

• Sensitivity – 95%
• Specificity – 100%
• Positive predictive value (PPV) – 100%
• Negative predictive value (NPV) – 99.7%
• Accuracy – 99.7%

These results show how AI-assisted software can provide an additional aid when radiologists evaluate CTA studies for unruptured aneurysms. Learn more about Rapid Aneurysm, the imaging platform discussed in the article.