Automated Detection and Visualization of Local Kidney Images with Artificial Intelligence Models

Kidney disease is a global health concern, often leading to kidney failure and impaired function. Artificial intelligence and deep learning have been extensively researched, with numerous proposed models and methods to improve kidney disease diagnosis. This work aims to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the diagnostic system for kidney disease by using Deep Learning, thereby contributing to effective healthcare delivery. This work proposed three models: CNN, CNN-XGBoost and CNN-RF to extract features and classify kidney Ultrasound images into four categories: three abnormal cases (stones, hydronephrosis, and cysts) and one normal case. The models were tested on a real dataset of 1260 kidney ultrasound images (from 1000 patients) collected from the Lithotripsy Centre in Iraq. CNN models are often viewed as black boxes due to the challenge of understanding their learned behaviors, Visualizing Intermediate Activations (VIA) was used to address this issue. The proposed framework was assessed based on precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy. CNN-RF is the most accurate model, with an accuracy of 99.6%. This study can potentially assist radiologists in high-volume medical facilities and enhance the accuracy of the diagnostic system for kidney disease.