Machine Learning Platform for Disease Diagnosis with Contrast CT Scans

Abstract

Machine learning has gained significant recognition as a powerful approach for medical diagnosis using medical images. Among various medical imaging modalities, contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) is utilized to obtain additional diagnostic information that improves visualization and evaluation of certain abnormalities in the human body, as well as to observe temporal changes in lesions and tumors across different time phases. However, developing such medical diagnostic systems presents two significant challenges: high technical complexity and substantial development effort. This paper presents a software platform that effectively addresses these challenges. Specifically, we propose a unified software process that fully automates contrast-enhanced CT (CECT)-specific disease diagnosis, with key tasks performed by leveraging task-specific machine learning models to enhance accuracy. The platform incorporates a suite of specialized machine learning models into the diagnostic process, enabling precise diagnosis of lesions, malignancies, tumors, tumor characteristics, and temporal changes over phases. Moreover, the platform has been designed according to the Open–Closed Principle, allowing it to be applicable to a wide range of CECT-based diagnostic systems. The platform has been implemented in Python using the Scikit-learn and TensorFlow libraries. To validate its applicability and reusability, a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis system has been implemented.