Artificial intelligence for pulmonary embolism detection: Is it comparable to radiology residents?

AI / informaticsEuropean journal of radiology open· Dec 2026

Artificial intelligence for pulmonary embolism detection: Is it comparable to radiology residents?

Periktioni Crina Chrysostomou, Alexandra Platon, Cyril Jaksic … Pierre-Alexandre Poletti

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Venous ThromboembolismAI / informaticsDiagnosisQ1IF 3.8

Artificial intelligence software detected pulmonary embolism with lower sensitivity than radiology residents

Artificial intelligence for pulmonary embolism detection: Is it comparable to radiology residents?

Periktioni Crina Chrysostomou … Pierre-Alexandre Poletti

European journal of radiology open · Dec 2026

Purpose

To assess the diagnostic performance of a commercial artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) software in detecting pulmonary embolism (pulmonary embolism) in emergency settings, compared with on-call radiology residents.

Methods

All consecutive emergency CT pulmonary angiographies (CT pulmonary angiographies) performed over a 3-month period in the emergency department of a university hospital in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism, initially interpreted by the radiology residents during the emergency workflow and subsequently verified and approved by a board-certified radiologist, were concomitantly analyzed by an artificial intelligence software for the presence of pulmonary embolism.

n = 82 patients

Results

Artificial intelligence correctly identified 89% of pulmonary embolism cases, versus 97.6% for residents.

97.6%

Sensitivity

89%

Specificity

More results

Among 594 CT pulmonary angiographies examinations, pulmonary embolism was present in 82 patients (13.8% prevalence), including 41 (50%) proximally located emboli.

More results

For proximal pulmonary embolism, sensitivity was 97.6% for artificial intelligence and 100% for residents (p = 1), whereas for peripheral pulmonary embolism, artificial intelligence sensitivity was 80.5% versus 95.1% for residents (p = 0.08).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Radiology residents showed an overall better performance in detecting pulmonary embolism compared to the artificial intelligence software.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

The artificial intelligence software achieved good diagnostic performance for pulmonary embolism detection, particularly for proximal located pulmonary embolism.

Artificial intelligence for pulmonary embolism detection: Is it comparable to radiology residents?

Artificial intelligence for pulmonary embolism detection: Is it comparable to radiology residents?

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