Biases associated with database structure for COVID-19 detection in X-ray images

Abstract

Several artificial intelligence algorithms have been developed for COVID-19-related topics. One that has been common is the COVID-19 diagnosis using chest X-rays, where the eagerness to obtain early results has triggered the construction of a series of datasets where bias management has not been thorough from the point of view of patient information, capture conditions, class imbalance, and careless mixtures of multiple datasets. This paper analyses 19 datasets of COVID-19 chest X-ray images, identifying potential biases. Moreover, computational experiments were conducted using one of the most popular datasets in this domain, which obtains a 96.19% of classification accuracy on the complete dataset. Nevertheless, when evaluated with the ethical tool Aequitas, it fails on all the metrics. Ethical tools enhanced with some distribution and image quality considerations are the keys to developing or choosing a dataset with fewer bias issues. We aim to provide broad research on dataset problems, tools, and suggestions for future dataset developments and COVID-19 applications using chest X-ray images.

Reinvestigating the performance of artificial intelligence classification algorithms on COVID-19 X-Ray and CT images

“…Therefore, three-dimensional volume computed tomography (CT) and two-dimensional projected chest X-ray (X-ray) have been used on an unprecedented scale in the diagnosis of COVID-19. 36 , 37 Among them, chest CT can more clearly display the typical imaging features of COVID-19 patients, such as ground-glass opacity and consolidation around the lung. 38 , 39 Due to the slight deficiency of CT imaging scanning cost and high patient dose, X-ray imaging scanning cost is low, the speed is fast, the radiation amount is low, and the audience is wider.…”