Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model

Objectives: Several factors such as unavailability of specialists, dental phobia, and financial difficulties may lead to a delay between receiving an oral radiology report and consulting a dentist. The primary aim of this study was to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk oral lesions according...

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Main Authors: Sare Mahdavifar, Seyed Mostafa Fakhrahmad, Elham Ansarifard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-02-01
Series:International Dental Journal
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020653924001680
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author Sare Mahdavifar
Seyed Mostafa Fakhrahmad
Elham Ansarifard
author_facet Sare Mahdavifar
Seyed Mostafa Fakhrahmad
Elham Ansarifard
author_sort Sare Mahdavifar
collection DOAJ
description Objectives: Several factors such as unavailability of specialists, dental phobia, and financial difficulties may lead to a delay between receiving an oral radiology report and consulting a dentist. The primary aim of this study was to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk oral lesions according to the radiologist's reports of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Such a facility may be employed by dentist or his/her assistant to make the patient aware of the severity and the grade of the oral lesion and referral for immediate treatment or other follow-up care. Methods: A total number of 1134 CBCT radiography reports owned by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were collected. The severity level of each sample was specified by three experts, and an annotation was carried out accordingly. After preprocessing the data, a deep learning model, referred to as CNN-LSTM, was developed, which aims to detect the degree of severity of the problem based on analysis of the radiologist's report. Unlike traditional models which usually use a simple collection of words, the proposed deep model uses words embedded in dense vector representations, which empowers it to effectively capture semantic similarities. Results: The results indicated that the proposed model outperformed its counterparts in terms of precision, recall, and F1 criteria. This suggests its potential as a reliable tool for early estimation of the severity of oral lesions. Conclusions: This study shows the effectiveness of deep learning in the analysis of textual reports and accurately distinguishing between high-risk and low-risk lesions. Employing the proposed model which can Provide timely warnings about the need for follow-up and prompt treatment can shield the patient from the risks associated with delays. Clinical significance: Our collaboratively collected and expert-annotated dataset serves as a valuable resource for exploratory research. The results demonstrate the pivotal role of our deep learning model could play in assessing the severity of oral lesions in dental reports.
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spelling doaj-art-62a55e11232c42b1b54802e32929eb262025-01-21T04:12:42ZengElsevierInternational Dental Journal0020-65392025-02-01751135143Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning ModelSare Mahdavifar0Seyed Mostafa Fakhrahmad1Elham Ansarifard2Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering and IT, Shiraz University, Shiraz, IranDept. of Computer Science and Engineering and IT, Shiraz University, Shiraz, IranDept. of Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Biomaterials Research Center, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Corresponding author. Department of Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Ghasr-e-dasht, Shiraz, 7195615878, Iran.Objectives: Several factors such as unavailability of specialists, dental phobia, and financial difficulties may lead to a delay between receiving an oral radiology report and consulting a dentist. The primary aim of this study was to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk oral lesions according to the radiologist's reports of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Such a facility may be employed by dentist or his/her assistant to make the patient aware of the severity and the grade of the oral lesion and referral for immediate treatment or other follow-up care. Methods: A total number of 1134 CBCT radiography reports owned by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were collected. The severity level of each sample was specified by three experts, and an annotation was carried out accordingly. After preprocessing the data, a deep learning model, referred to as CNN-LSTM, was developed, which aims to detect the degree of severity of the problem based on analysis of the radiologist's report. Unlike traditional models which usually use a simple collection of words, the proposed deep model uses words embedded in dense vector representations, which empowers it to effectively capture semantic similarities. Results: The results indicated that the proposed model outperformed its counterparts in terms of precision, recall, and F1 criteria. This suggests its potential as a reliable tool for early estimation of the severity of oral lesions. Conclusions: This study shows the effectiveness of deep learning in the analysis of textual reports and accurately distinguishing between high-risk and low-risk lesions. Employing the proposed model which can Provide timely warnings about the need for follow-up and prompt treatment can shield the patient from the risks associated with delays. Clinical significance: Our collaboratively collected and expert-annotated dataset serves as a valuable resource for exploratory research. The results demonstrate the pivotal role of our deep learning model could play in assessing the severity of oral lesions in dental reports.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020653924001680CBCT imageRadiology reportOral lesionsDeep learningText classificationMachine learning
spellingShingle Sare Mahdavifar
Seyed Mostafa Fakhrahmad
Elham Ansarifard
Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
International Dental Journal
CBCT image
Radiology report
Oral lesions
Deep learning
Text classification
Machine learning
title Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
title_full Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
title_fullStr Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
title_full_unstemmed Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
title_short Estimating the Severity of Oral Lesions Via Analysis of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Reports: A Proposed Deep Learning Model
title_sort estimating the severity of oral lesions via analysis of cone beam computed tomography reports a proposed deep learning model
topic CBCT image
Radiology report
Oral lesions
Deep learning
Text classification
Machine learning
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020653924001680
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