Deep learning to assess right ventricular ejection fraction from two‐dimensional echocardiograms in precapillary pulmonary hypertension

Abstract Background Precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by a sustained increase in right ventricular (RV) afterload, impairing systolic function. Two‐dimensional (2D) echocardiography is the most performed cardiac imaging tool to assess RV systolic function; however, an accurate evaluation requires expertise. We aimed to develop a fully automated deep learning (DL)‐based tool to estimate the RV ejection fraction (RVEF) from 2D echocardiographic videos of apical four‐chamber views in patients with precapillary PH. Methods We identified 85 patients with suspected precapillary PH who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and echocardiography. The data was divided into training (80%) and testing (20%) datasets, and a regression model was constructed using 3D‐ResNet50. Accuracy was assessed using five‐fold cross validation. Results The DL model predicted the cardiac MRI‐derived RVEF with a mean absolute error of 7.67%. The DL model identified severe RV systolic dysfunction (defined as cardiac MRI‐derived RVEF < 37%) with an area under the curve (AUC) of .84, which was comparable to the AUC of RV fractional area change (FAC) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) measured by experienced sonographers (.87 and .72, respectively). To detect mild RV systolic dysfunction (defined as RVEF ≤ 45%), the AUC from the DL‐predicted RVEF also demonstrated a high discriminatory power of .87, comparable to that of FAC (.90), and significantly higher than that of TAPSE (.67). Conclusion The fully automated DL‐based tool using 2D echocardiography could accurately estimate RVEF and exhibited a diagnostic performance for RV systolic dysfunction comparable to that of human readers.