"'Electromyography Test' AI Interpretation Outperforms Doctors"

Nowon Eulji Hospital Neurology Department's Only Professor Team
Leads in Accuracy, Sensitivity, Positive Predictive Value, and Speed

The only professor in the Department of Neurology at Nowon Eulji University Hospital.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] A study has found that electromyography (EMG) test interpretation using artificial intelligence (AI) is superior to doctors in both accuracy and speed.

The neurology team led by Professor Yoo Il-han at Nowon Eulji University Hospital announced on the 23rd that when applying AI to analyze EMG of muscle contraction states, the interpretation accuracy was 19% higher and the speed was 30 to 40 minutes faster compared to doctors. This is the first study on AI and EMG testing.

The research team extracted numerical data from EMG waveform data of 57 patients who underwent EMG tests between 2015 and 2020 due to suspected neuropathy or myopathy and applied it to AI.

Based on this, the AI analyzed EMG waveforms of normal individuals, neuropathy, and myopathy, as well as all individual muscles, resulting in ▲accuracy of 88% ▲sensitivity of 82% ▲positive predictive value of 86%. In comparison, six doctors interpreted the EMG tests under the same conditions and showed ▲accuracy of 69% ▲sensitivity of 54% ▲positive predictive value of 60%.

Notably, the time AI took to interpret the EMG of all muscles of a patient and provide a final diagnosis was only one second, whereas doctors took an average of more than 30 to 40 minutes.

EMG is an important test to differentiate between neuropathy and myopathy patients. Neuropathy shows a decrease in the number of motor nerves causing muscle contraction when applying the same force, while myopathy shows a pattern where more motor nerves than normal cause muscle contraction even with less force. Because of this, it is difficult to perfectly distinguish the two diseases visually, and there has been a limitation of significant inter-doctor variability in interpreting test results.

Professor Yoo said, "This study revealed that AI-based EMG interpretation is fast and accurate," adding, "If AI interpretation is applied to EMG in the future, it will play an important role in diagnosing neuromuscular disease patients more accurately and quickly."

This study was published in the recent issue of the SCI-level journal Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine.

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