Laterality Classification of X-Ray Images : Using Deep Learning

Abstract: When radiologists examine X-rays, it is crucial that they are aware of the laterality of the examined body part. The laterality refers to which side of the body that is considered, e.g. Left and Right. The consequences of a mistake based on information regarding the incorrect laterality could be disastrous. This thesis aims to address this problem by providing a deep neural network model that classifies X-rays based on their laterality. X-ray images contain markers that are used to indicate the laterality of the image. In this thesis, both a classification model and a detection model have been trained to detect these markers and to identify the laterality. The models have been trained and evaluated on four body parts: knees, feet, hands and shoulders. The images can be divided into three laterality classes: Bilateral, Left and Right. The model proposed in this thesis is a combination of two classification models: one for distinguishing between Bilateral and Unilateral images, and one for classifying Unilateral images as Left or Right. The latter utilizes the confidence of the predictions to categorize some of them as less accurate (Uncertain), which includes images where the marker is not visible or very hard to identify. The model was able to correctly distinguish Bilateral from Unilateral with an accuracy of 100.0 %. For the Unilateral images, 5.00 % were categorized as Uncertain and for the remaining images, 99.99 % of those were classified correctly as Left or Right.