Large language models for error detection in radiology reports: a comparative analysis between closed-source and privacy-compliant open-source models
摘要
Large language models (LLMs) like Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) can assist in detecting errors in radiology reports, but privacy concerns limit their clinical applicability. This study compares closed-source and privacy-compliant open-source LLMs for detecting common errors in radiology reports.
Materials and methodsA total of 120 radiology reports were compiled (30 each from X-ray, ultrasound, CT, and MRI). Subsequently, 397 errors from five categories (typographical, numerical, findings-impression discrepancies, omission/insertion, interpretation) were inserted into 100 of these reports; 20 reports were left unchanged. Two open-source models (Llama 3-70b, Mixtral 8x22b) and two commercial closed-source (GPT-4, GPT-4o) were tasked with error detection using identical prompts. The Kruskall–Wallis test and paired t-test were used for statistical analysis.
ResultsOpen-source LLMs required less processing time per radiology report than closed-source LLMs (6 ± 2 s vs. 13 ± 4 s; p < 0.001). Closed-source LLMs achieved higher error detection rates than open-source LLMs (GPT-4o: 88% [348/397; 95% CI: 86, 92], GPT-4: 83% [328/397; 95% CI: 80, 87], Llama 3-70b: 79% [311/397; 95% CI: 76, 83], Mixtral 8x22b: 73% [288/397; 95% CI: 68, 77]; p < 0.001). Numerical errors (88% [67/76; 95% CI: 82, 93]) were detected significantly more often than typographical errors (75% [65/86; 95% CI: 68, 82]; p = 0.02), discrepancies between findings and impression (73% [73/101; 95% CI: 67, 80]; p < 0.01), and interpretation errors (70% [50/71; 95% CI: 62, 78]; p = 0.001).
ConclusionOpen-source LLMs demonstrated effective error detection, albeit with comparatively lower accuracy than commercial closed-source models, and have potential for clinical applications when deployed via privacy-compliant local hosting solutions.
Key Points