The value of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the fight against COVID-19.

The outbreak of the new type of coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has caused a huge impact on the world. In this case, only by adhering to the prevention and control methods of early diagnosis, early isolation, and early treatment, can the spread of the virus be prevented to the greatest extent. This article uses artificial intelligence-assisted medical imaging diagnosis as the research object, combines artificial intelligence and CT medical imaging diagnosis, introduces an intelligent COVID-19 detection system, and uses it to achieve COVID-19 disease screening and lesion evaluation. CT examination has the advantages of fast speed and high accuracy, which can provide a favorable basis for clinical diagnosis. This article collected 32 lung CT scan images of patients with confirmed COVID-19. Two professional radiologists analyzed the CT images using traditional imaging diagnostic methods and artificial intelligence-assisted imaging diagnostic methods, and the comparison showed the gap between the two methods. According to experiments, CT imaging diagnosis assisted by artificial intelligence only takes 0.744 min on average, which can save a lot of time and cost compared with the average time of 3.623 min for conventional diagnosis. In terms of comprehensive test accuracy, it can be concluded that the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis has extremely high application value in COVID-19 diagnosis.

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic poses a major threat to human life and even global health and economic systems. The National Health Commission lists it as a class B infectious disease, but the control measures for class A infectious diseases are used in virus prevention. During this epidemic, the most conventional method used to detect the condition is nucleic acid testing. This convenient method is suitable for large-scale collective testing, but it is easily interfered by different factors and it is difficult to guarantee the accuracy of the test results. If there is a suspicious object, it is necessary to conduct a further diagnosis of the condition through lung CT examination. Generally speaking, CT images mainly rely on the experience of radiologists to make judgments, and there is no objective diagnostic standard.

The application of artificial intelligence in image diagnosis has been studied abroad for many years, and very fruitful results have been obtained. Blum believes that digital image analysis can diagnose skin melanoma. He developed a computer algorithm for diagnosing melanocyte lesions and compared the accuracy of its diagnosis with the results of established dermoscopy classification rules [1]. Kim evaluated the imaging characteristics of diabetic breast disease (DMP) and the role of image-guided biopsy in its diagnosis through clinical medical experiments [2]. In his research report, Zarandi introduced a type 2 fuzzy expert system for meniscus tear diagnosis using PD magnetic resonance images (MRI). The second type of fuzzy image processing model consists of three different modules: preprocessing, segmentation, and classification [3]. Singh proposed a digital image method based on automatic image processing and used it to diagnose glaucoma. According to experimental data, the accuracy of this digital algorithm is as high as 95.2% [4]. In his research, Senthilkumar proposed a novel automatic supervised feature selection and discretization algorithm to enhance the classification of medical images [5]. Sudhir conducted research on the diagnosis of bronchoalveolar carcinoma (BAC) by high-resolution computed tomography and highlighted the value of CT detection in the differential diagnosis of BAC through comparison [6].

Compared with foreign countries, domestic research on intelligent medical imaging diagnosis started late, but developed rapidly. Huang conducted an analysis of the diagnosis of dementia based on medical imaging, and he proposed a new perfusion functional magnetic resonance imaging technique and a continuous Kendall-Tau rank correlation coefficient [7]. Dongqi combined experiments to explore and analyze the relationship between artificial intelligence and medical imaging diagnosis. He believes that intelligent recognition technology and medical imaging technology are clinically combined and dependent on each other [8]. Chen analyzed the application value of CT angiography in lower extremity arterial diseases, and proved the important role of intelligent imaging diagnosis in the detection of lower extremity diseases through experimental data [9]. Lee believes that large-scale medical image data will cause manual diagnosis to be laborious, and the result contains a lot of subjectivity due to the variability between observers. The combination of computer vision technology in medical image analysis can better improve this problem [10].

During this epidemic, chest X-ray and chest CT examinations provided great help in screening for COVID-19. According to clinical diagnosis, lung CT images of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 are abnormal to a certain extent, and this abnormality is different from other pneumonia viruses. Therefore, most doctors use CT images of the lungs as an important basis for disease diagnosis. This article combines artificial intelligence and computerized tomography technology to introduce comprehensive COVID-19 detection software and apply it to screening, lesion assessment, and lesion segmentation during the epidemic. At the same time, this article examined 116 suspected COVID-19 patients in the hospital, combined with artificial intelligence to analyze their lung CT images, and finally, 32 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19. The main work of this paper is to compare and combine the results of artificial intelligence and traditional visual diagnosis in the process of analyzing CT images, which can better reflect the application value of artificial intelligence in COVID-19 detection.

Application method of the combination of artificial intelligence and image diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19

Application method of CT detection technology in COVID-19 diagnosis

The imaging manifestations of COVID-19 are usually multiple ground-glass shadows with thickened interlobular or grid shadows. If lesions occur, there is a high probability that bronchial inflation and thickening of blood vessels will occur. Some patients may even have nearby the problem of bronchial tube wall thickening [11]. The lesions are mostly distributed under the pleura at the periphery of the lungs, mainly in the back and lower lungs. Analyzing the distribution of COVID-19 lesions, it can be seen that about 79.3% of patients have both lung involvement, and 41.2% of patients have 5 lung lobes simultaneously involved. In addition, a very small number of patients will experience symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis and pleural effusion.

CT examination can assess the extent of the impact of COVID-19 lesions on the lungs. In previous studies, some scholars have tried to use a CT semi-quantitative scoring method to investigate the degree of involvement of lung lesions. Now people call it the “CT image lung involvement score” method. In summary, the lung is considered three parts during the examination. Zero percent is 0, 1–25% is 1, and 26–50% is 2. Among them, 51~75% was 3 points, and > 75% was 4 points. According to the score, we can more directly reflect the involvement of lesions [12, 13].

Compared with other common respiratory virus infections caused by pneumonia, the diagnosis of COVID-19 is significantly more difficult. In clinical cases, there are many cases where the accounting test is negative but the CT test is abnormal. It can be seen that it is very necessary to ensure the accurate judgment of the CT test [14, 15]. In the presence of mixed infections and lesions, it is not only necessary to rely on epidemiological history and clinical symptoms for diagnosis, but the combination of artificial intelligence and CT detection technology is also very necessary.

Application method of image diagnosis technology in medical diagnosis

The advancement of medical technology has made image diagnosis technology more and more widely used in medicine. The development of information technology has provided a favorable practical environment for imaging technology. The core of medical imaging technology is to use informationized imaging data to diagnose and analyze the patient’s condition. Traditional medical imaging diagnosis basically relies on the visual judgment of doctors. Radiologists not only need to understand basic medical theory, but also need to be proficient in a variety of professional imaging techniques in order to continuously improve the accuracy of disease diagnosis in practice.

Limitations of diagnostic imaging technology

In clinical practice, if only relying on the doctor’s experience to judge the condition, the whole process will still have certain limitations, especially in the face of a large-scale outbreak of viral pneumonia such as COVID-19. In specific case analysis, there are often cases where different disease images are similar. For example, the images of COVID-19 patients are generally close compared to other viral pneumonia patients, but there are some local differences. Especially in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a lack of sufficient sample data and theoretical basis. It is difficult to accurately determine the patient’s condition if only relying on multiple ground-glass shadows, pleural effusions, or lymphadenopathy [16, 17]. In addition, the use of planar reconstruction technology (MPR) to reconstruct the lesion before imaging diagnosis, the increase in time cost has made the diagnosis more difficult when the number of patients is already excessive.

Planar reconstruction technology in image diagnosis

Planar reconstruction (MPR) is a basic tool used to explain cardiac CT angiography research. By using retrospective ECG gating, data from specific phases of the cardiac cycle can be retrospectively referenced to the ECG for reconstruction. After the reconstruction is completed, the data will be directly transmitted to the workstation, and then, the radiologist will dock with the reconstruction sequence on the workstation in real time. Most workstations with cardiopulmonary analysis functions can automatically orient the volumetric image dataset along the heart axis to the traditionally used heart plane (i.e., short axis, horizontal long axis, vertical long axis) by clicking a button [18, 19]. This function is particularly useful for evaluating the function of the heart cavity and lungs. At the same time, the selected reformatted image will be sent to the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) for examination by the referring clinician and long-term storage.

Application method of artificial intelligence technology in image diagnosis

Artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) is a science that studies the theory and methods of human intelligence expansion, and is an important part of computer science. The essence of artificial intelligence is to allow machines to independently realize a process similar to human thinking and have an intelligence level that exceeds that of humans [20]. With the continuous development of domestic artificial intelligence technology, artificial intelligence has also been widely used in medicine, not only in medical imaging diagnosis, but also in pathological analysis, drug prescription, clinical analysis, medical equipment management, etc. The auxiliary effect but also plays a supporting role in pathological analysis, drug prescription, clinical analysis, and medical equipment management, etc.

The research and application of artificial intelligence in lung medical imaging has been relatively mature. Generally speaking, the process of medical imaging diagnosis is divided into two parts: imaging and imaging diagnosis. The development of artificial intelligence can promote both aspects. The working principle of computerized tomography (CT) is to scan the human body using X-rays, Y-rays, or ultrasound. Each tissue of the human body has different absorption and transmittance rates for X-rays. After a series of processing, an image is finally generated, and professional doctors can know the patient’s physical condition by observing the image [21, 22]. The improvement of artificial intelligence technology can improve the quality of system imaging to a certain extent. At the same time, the image processing algorithm in artificial intelligence can also assist doctors in better diagnosis of the disease.

Research on artificial intelligence image enhancement algorithm

Generally speaking, people will divide the image enhancement technology in artificial intelligence into three categories: frequency domain method, air domain method, and blur processing method. The core concept of the frequency domain method is to realize the enhancement of image accuracy by performing image change operations. This method requires high-intensity manual participation; otherwise, the appropriate transformation parameters cannot be confirmed. The application range of the spatial method is relatively small. Because it directly uses the histogram changes to operate on the image, it can only be used under certain conditions, such as image filtering and image inspection, and the spatial method can be used to improve image quality. The blur processing method, as the name implies, requires the image to be blurred first; then, the plane features of the blurred image are manipulated, and finally, it is conveyed to the spatial area for image enhancement [23]. In this paper, by improving the artificial intelligence image enhancement algorithm, the intelligence of COVID-19 diagnosis platform is improved, and the accuracy of CT image histogram is better optimized [24, 25].

Application of intelligent algorithms in image diagnosis technology

Medical imaging usually contains a large amount of information. This information is not only complex itself, but also extended related information. Therefore, data mining of medical imaging is different from traditional database mining and requires complex algorithms in specific fields. Through research in this paper, it is found that the use of neural network structure and backpropagation algorithm (BP algorithm) can effectively promote the application of artificial intelligence in medical imaging diagnosis.

Artificial neural networks

In artificial neural networks, the entire system is divided into three parts: input, training, and output. The responsibility of the input part is to integrate and collect the sample X, the responsibility of the training part is to constantly adjust the weight coefficient W, and the output part is complicated to output the final result. It is known that x1, x2, ⋯, xn is the input sample signal and w1, w2, ⋯, wn is the weight coefficient. The input sample signal acts through the weight coefficient, and the output result produced in u satisfies:

The expected output signal Y(t) and u are compared to generate an error signal. The weight adjustment mechanism then revises the system according to the error until the error is reduced to 0; the actual output value is exactly the same as the expected output value.

Backpropagation algorithm

BP algorithm (backpropagation algorithm) is a kind of learning algorithm suitable for a multilayer neural network, which is based on a gradient descent method. The input-output relationship of the BP network is essentially a mapping relationship. In the backpropagation algorithm, in order to speed up the convergence speed, the gradient method can be used to modify the weight. Set the input vector to X = (x1, x2, ⋯, xn), the hidden layer output vector to Y = (y1, y2, ⋯, yh), the output layer vector O = (o1, o2, ⋯, om), and the expected output vector to d = (d1, d2, ⋯, dm). The connection weight matrix between the input layer and the hidden layer is represented by V, V = (V1, V2, ⋯, Vj, ⋯, Vh), where the column vector Vj is the weight corresponding to the jth neuron in the hidden layer. Then, the input and output of the kth neuron in the output layer are:

The input and output of the jth neuron in the hidden layer are:

The error E between the actual output and the expected inequality satisfies:

The calculation formula for the weight adjustment from the hidden layer to the output layer is:

Theoretically, as long as there are enough hidden layers and enough hidden layer units, the BP neural network can approximate any linear and non-linear functions, but too many hidden layers and hidden layer units will seriously affect the speed of the neural network. In practical applications, the intelligent image diagnosis system will be in a state of continuous learning. With the continuous increase of training samples, the speed and accuracy of image diagnosis will also be improved.

Experimental research on the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19

Experimental subject

The subjects of this article are 116 patients with suspected COVID-19 who were admitted in the hospital during the epidemic. According to the final test results, 32 confirmed patients will be the experimental group of the study, and the remaining 84 patients with common pneumonia will be the control group. Among 116 patients, the youngest was only 13 years old and the oldest was 82 years old. The average age of the patients was 41 years old. Among the 32 confirmed patients, 14 had travelled to and from Wuhan within half a month, and the other 18 had close contacts with other confirmed patients. All 84 patients in the control group had undergone nucleic acid tests and CT tests, and the results showed that it was not COVID-19 infection, but ordinary lung inflammation caused high fever, cough, and malaise.

Experiment process

All 116 patients underwent chest CT examination using the same scanner and generated images after intelligent analysis. The diagnosis process is carried out by two professional doctors. Doctor A has 15 years of imaging diagnosis work experience. In this experiment, he will complete the diagnosis independently; doctor B has 13 years of imaging diagnosis work experience. In the experiment, he will use artificial intelligence to assist complete imaging diagnosis. After all the diagnosis work is completed, this article analyzes and compares the diagnosis practice and diagnosis results of the two. At the same time, the lung CT images of patients with COVID-19 and common pneumonia were analyzed, and more experience was summarized. Through the comparison of artificial diagnosis and artificial intelligence–aided diagnosis, the auxiliary effect of artificial intelligence in detection can be better reflected.

Experimental image analysis

When CT image analysis is assisted by artificial intelligence, the platform will segment the image of all detected objects, and the polling will not end until the status of the segmentation task returned by the polling shows success. The image of lesion segmentation usually has two colors. The gray part represents the non-lesion area, and the red part represents the lesion area. After the transparency adjustment is performed, the lesion segmentation image is superimposed with the original CT image, and the light red lesion area can be clearly seen. The artificial intelligence system can also intelligently analyze the lung pixels and lesion pixels in CT images, and visually display them in the form of graphs. By calculating the mean and variance of the pixel data of the lesion, the extent of lung infection can be judged, and subsequent treatment plans can be better formulated.

In addition, the intelligent diagnosis platform also includes the function of correcting diagnosis results. The intelligent system will arrange all diagnosis reports in order of priority. The doctor can first diagnose the serious cases and use his own years of medical experience to verify the artificial intelligence diagnosis results. If the doctor determines that there is a problem in the diagnosis, he can use the system and correct the diagnosis result. In the process of intelligent diagnosis, due to the learning optimization function of the BP algorithm, as the diagnosis data becomes more and more abundant, the model performance of the system will be gradually improved.

Application analysis of the combination of artificial intelligence and image diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19

Analysis of the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19

Analysis of CT image performance of COVID-19 assisted by artificial intelligence

COVID-19 has its typical imaging markers. In clinical practice, according to the extent and performance of the lesion, it is usually recommended to divide the CT manifestations of COVID-19 into three stages: early stage, development stage, and severe stage. Some patients may undergo radiological changes after isolation treatment. In this study, this article organized patients to complete all examinations based on clinical history, treatment status, and CT results. Patients without significant clinical changes were classified according to imaging progress. This article performed 50 CT scans on 32 confirmed COVID-19 patients. Among the 18 patients who were newly diagnosed, 5 were diagnosed in the early stage, 9 in the advanced stage, 2 in the severe diagnosis, and 2 in the radiological diagnosis. Of the 14 patients whose symptoms were confirmed in the follow-up visit, 2 cases were from early to developmental stage, 5 from developmental stage to radiological turn-around, 5 from early stage to radiological turn-around, and 2 from early stage to developmental stage and then to radiology school turnaround period. Taken together, there were 14 early COVID-19 images, 18 in the advanced stage, 2 in the severe stage, and 16 in the radiological turn-off period. Table 1 shows the relevant data of image sign analysis.

Table 1

Image sign analysis data

	Early	Development period	Severe stage	Radiology turnaround	Total
Initial diagnosis	10	13	2	4	29
Return visit	4	5	0	12	21

In the early stage, there are multiple limited ground-glass, nodule, and pale shadows in one or both lungs. Most of the nodules are accompanied by “halo signs.” With the manifestation of the clinical treatment effect, the radiation outcome will eventually reach the absorption period, and the image will appear as lesions. Shrinkage, density reduction, consolidation, and ground-glass shadows are mostly absorbed, and some patients still have a little ground-glass shadows and cord shadows. Taken together, the use of artificial intelligence for COVID-19 diagnosis can intuitively count the infection of the patient’s lungs, and the improved intelligent algorithm can enhance the system’s level of image feature extraction. The image segmentation technology of region growth can realize the accurate location of the virus infection. At the same time, the compactness, the Fourier descriptor, and the invariant moments are extracted as the edge shape features, and the Gaussian normalization method is used to normalize the imaging features.

Figure 1 is the histogram of the imaging indicator pixel distribution of three patients in this experiment. According to the information in Fig. 1, the mean pixel value of the lesions of patient A is 325,167.21, the variance is 568,227.34, and the total lesions accounted for 1.88%. The average pixel value of the lesions in patient B was 393,218.55, the variance was 581,374.29, and the total lesion ratio was 2.26%. The average pixel value of the lesions in patient C was 284,431.67, the variance was 541,261.39, and the total lesion ratio was 1.65%. In addition, the artificial intelligence diagnosis system can also reflect various information of the patient in detail based on the image analysis technology of regional growth, such as blood lymphocytes, heart rate, questioning, blood oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, questioning, and other data.

Fig. 1

Histogram of imaging indicator pixel distribution of the three patients

Analysis of COVID-19 diagnosis results with the assistance of artificial intelligence

Among the 116 subjects in this article, there are 32 confirmed COVID-19 patients and 84 control patients. The proportions of males in the two groups were 48.27% and 56.31%, and the average ages were 42.8 years and 39.2 years. The analysis showed that gender and age factors did not have significant statistical differences in this study. Excluding these factors, the experimental group and patients in the control group still have good comparability.

Figure 2 is a comparison of artificial intelligence measurements between the experimental group and the control group in this study. Group A represents the proportion of whole lung infections, group B represents the proportion of left lung infections, group C represents the proportion of right lung infections, group D represents HU (< − 750) infections, group E represents HU (− 750, − 300) infection, and group F represents HU (− 300, 50) infection. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that there is a significant difference in the proportion of lesions between the two groups, but there is no significant difference in the volume of whole lung infection. Taken together, the volume and proportion of HU (− 750, − 300) infections in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group.

Fig. 2

Comparison of AI measurement values between the COVID-19 group and control group

At present, there is no complete evaluation system for the image feature diagnosis of COVID-19, so it is necessary to rely on artificial intelligence to assist doctors in completing medical imaging diagnosis. Among the subjects of this study, most of the COVID-19 infections are only mild infections, so the proportion of lesions is relatively small. In the artificial intelligence system, more accurate image shape feature extraction can be achieved through the invariant moment method and wavelet important coefficient method, helping doctors find early symptoms in time, and achieve early diagnosis, early isolation, and early treatment. Of course, since the HU moment invariant is based on the region; the amount of calculation is relatively large. When identifying the COVID-19 virus in the lungs, the use of a new moment invariant based on the contour of the object can more effectively increase the calculation speed and help the system make intelligent decisions.

Value analysis of the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19

Comparison of artificial intelligence–assisted diagnosis and doctor’s diagnosis

During the outbreak of COVID-19, the excessive number of patients put a huge test on the speed of hospital diagnosis. Nucleic acid test reports have to wait at least 2 to 4 h for results. In order to improve overall efficiency, hospitals usually send hundreds of specimens to the laboratory for operation. This process takes at least 8 to 10 h. Compared with the nucleic acid testing, the CT testing is undoubtedly more efficient. Generally speaking, it only takes tens of seconds for the patient to complete the accounting test. The whole process from the preparation before entering the CT room to the completion of the examination will not exceed 5 min.

Although CT detection itself does not take too much time, if you only rely on doctors to diagnose a large number of CT images, it will undoubtedly cause a huge workload and easily lead to misdiagnosis. In order to improve this problem, this research introduces an intelligent COVID-19 detection system, which can effectively improve the diagnosis speed of CT images. Figure 3 is a comparison of the time between a doctor’s diagnosis alone and a diagnosis with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

Fig. 3

Time comparison data for AI-assisted and doctor diagnosis

According to the data in Fig. 3, the following two conclusions can be drawn. First, the speed of the doctor’s diagnosis and AI-assisted diagnosis will be affected by the difficulty of the disease. In the case of more complicated cases, both methods of reading pictures will take more time. Second, the time of the AI-assisted diagnosis is greatly reduced compared with the time of regular reading. When diagnosing these 15 cases of CT images, the average time of traditional diagnosis is 3.623 min, while the average time of diagnosis assisted by artificial intelligence is usually 0.744 min, which is about 45 s to complete an image analysis. In the case of a large number of patients, the artificial intelligence system can help doctors effectively improve work efficiency and provide an effective basis for clinical disease assessment.

Comparison of accuracy between artificial intelligence–assisted diagnosis and doctor’s diagnosis

When performing CT imaging diagnosis, in addition to the diagnosis time, another point that needs special attention is the accuracy of the diagnosis. Generally speaking, the younger the doctor, the more time it takes to perform the CT diagnosis, and the accuracy rate is relatively low. The two doctors invited in this study have more than 10 years of imaging diagnosis experience, but from the data analysis in Fig. 3, it can be seen that even very experienced doctors can hardly match the diagnosis speed of artificial intelligence. In order to comprehensively consider the application value of artificial intelligence in image diagnosis, it is also necessary to analyze its diagnostic accuracy. Figure 4 is a comparison of the number of lung lobe infections diagnosed by doctors alone and diagnosed with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

Fig. 4

AI-assisted and doctor-diagnosed lung lobe infection comparison data

According to the data in Fig. 4, under the premise of shorter time, doctors combined with artificial intelligence systems diagnosed more infected lung lobes. In order to judge the accuracy of the two reading methods, the two doctors jointly conducted a second visit to 32 patients in the intelligent system. The results showed that the accuracy rate of the initial diagnosis in the traditional image reading diagnosis was 83.72%, while the accuracy rate of the diagnosis combined with artificial intelligence assistance was 97.73%. After two rounds of follow-up diagnosis, the accurate diagnosis of all infected lung lobes can be basically guaranteed.

In summary, the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis can not only improve the efficiency of doctors’ diagnosis, but also effectively improve the accuracy of diagnosis. CT imaging not only is an important basis for the diagnosis of COVID-19, but also can be used to evaluate the condition of the disease through detailed lesion identification, and further promote the formulation of treatment plans. For some infections that are easily overlooked by the human eye, artificial intelligence can be combined with the BP algorithm to more accurately identify. After the patient receives treatment, the doctor can compare and analyze the CT re-examined images with the images at the time of diagnosis, to more intuitively understand the recovery of the disease. The improvement of artificial intelligence image enhancement algorithms has further improved the performance of the intelligent diagnosis system. At the same time, with the growth of clinical diagnosis data, the intelligence of the COVID-19 detection system will gradually increase, and it will continue to provide doctors and patients in actual work a more precise and efficient service.

Conclusions

This article analyzes the application of the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19. If certain characteristic manifestations are observed in the patient’s CT scan, the case can be identified as suspected COVID-19. Even if there are no clinical symptoms, the suspected patient must be hospitalized or isolated for further examination. The current clinical experience of treating COVID-19 patients shows that the early false-negative probability of the virus in the nucleic acid test report is high, so suspicious patients must undergo multiple tests every few days to confirm the diagnosis. For this reason, the use of CT scans for further screening is very necessary. Medical imaging plays a vital role in limiting the spread of the virus and fighting COVID-19. According to experiments, artificial intelligence can generate a histogram of the imaging indicator pixel distribution during the detection process to help doctors determine the area of lung infection and better formulate follow-up treatment plans. At the same time, comparing the lung CT images of 32 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 84 patients in the control group, it can be found that there is no significant difference in the area of lung infection between the two groups of images, but there is a big difference in the HU infection data.

In order to better show the value of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the fight against COVID-19, this paper studies the traditional diagnosis methods and artificial intelligence–aided diagnosis methods from the perspective of diagnosis time and accuracy. Experimental data shows that the average time of the traditional diagnosis method is 3.623 min, and the accuracy rate is 83.72%; the average time of the new diagnosis method combined with artificial intelligence is 0.744 min, and the accuracy rate is 97.73%. In other words, whether it is from the diagnosis time or from the diagnosis accuracy rate, artificial intelligence–assisted diagnosis has a stronger competitive advantage. The artificial intelligence diagnosis system can not only help doctors improve diagnosis efficiency, but also promote the implementation of follow-up treatment work. At this stage, the reason why this intelligent diagnosis system has not been fully implemented is mainly due to the lack of sufficient sample data, which has led some hospitals to wait and see its diagnosis effect. In addition, the sensitivity of artificial intelligence diagnosis is high, and false-positive diagnosis results sometimes occur. For example, the number of infected lung lobes diagnosed by the system in the experiment is 132, but the actual number of infections in the second round of follow-up diagnosis is 129. Such a false-positive diagnosis will not only cause greater psychological pressure on the patient, but also interfere with subsequent treatment plans.

This article analyzes the application value of the combination of artificial intelligence and imaging diagnosis in the diagnosis of COVID-19. It can be basically determined through experimental data that imaging diagnosis combined with artificial intelligence BP algorithm can increase the diagnosis speed on the basis of ensuring accuracy, and provide great help for alleviating the work pressure of doctors and improving the efficiency of hospitals. Limited by various conditions, this research still has some shortcomings. For example, the research subjects are limited, and most of the 32 confirmed patients have mild and developmental symptoms. The study of severe patients lacks more data support. Secondly, domestic CT scanning and imaging technologies have not yet formed a high degree of unity, and the research conducted in this hospital lacks a certain degree of representativeness. Finally, there is still room for improvement in the degree of intelligence of artificial intelligence diagnostic software. With the advancement of scientific research technology in the future, the accuracy of intelligent diagnostic systems will be getting closer and closer to 100%, providing more help for medical imaging diagnosis.

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