Importance: Convolutional neural networks have recently been applied to ophthalmic diseases; however, the rationale for the outputs generated by these systems is inscrutable to clinicians. A visualization tool is needed that would enable clinicians to understand important exposure variables in real time.
Objective: To systematically visualize the convolutional neural networks of 2 validated deep learning models for the detection of referable diabetic retinopathy (DR) and glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON).
Design, setting, and participants: The GON and referable DR algorithms were previously developed and validated (holdout method) using 48 116 and 66 790 retinal photographs, respectively, derived from a third-party database (LabelMe) of deidentified photographs from various clinical settings in China. In the present cross-sectional study, a random sample of 100 true-positive photographs and all false-positive cases from each of the GON and DR validation data sets were selected. All data were collected from March to June 2017. The original color fundus images were processed using an adaptive kernel visualization technique. The images were preprocessed by applying a sliding window with a size of 28 × 28 pixels and a stride of 3 pixels to crop images into smaller subimages to produce a feature map. Threshold scales were adjusted to optimal levels for each model to generate heat maps highlighting localized landmarks on the input image. A single optometrist allocated each image to predefined categories based on the generated heat map.
Main outcomes and measures: Visualization regions of the fundus.
Results: In the GON data set, 90 of 100 true-positive cases (90%; 95% CI, 82%-95%) and 15 of 22 false-positive cases (68%; 95% CI, 45%-86%) displayed heat map visualization within regions of the optic nerve head only. Lesions typically seen in cases of referable DR (exudate, hemorrhage, or vessel abnormality) were identified as the most important prognostic regions in 96 of 100 true-positive DR cases (96%; 95% CI, 90%-99%). In 39 of 46 false-positive DR cases (85%; 95% CI, 71%-94%), the heat map displayed visualization of nontraditional fundus regions with or without retinal venules.
Conclusions and relevance: These findings suggest that this visualization method can highlight traditional regions in disease diagnosis, substantiating the validity of the deep learning models investigated. This visualization technique may promote the clinical adoption of these models.