Multitask Deep Learning for Joint Detection of Necrotizing Viral and Noninfectious Retinitis From Common Blood and Serology Test Data

PURPOSE. Necrotizing viral retinitis is a serious eye infection that requires immediate treatment to prevent permanent vision loss. Uncertain clinical suspicion can result in delayed diagnosis, inappropriate administration of corticosteroids, or repeated intraocular sampling. To quickly and accurately distinguish between viral and noninfectious retinitis, we aimed to develop deep learning (DL) models solely using noninvasive blood test data. METHODS. This cross-sectional study trained DL models using common blood and serology test data from 3080 patients (noninfectious uveitis of the posterior segment [NIUPS] = 2858, acute retinal necrosis [ARN] = 66, cytomegalovirus [CMV], retinitis = 156). Following the development of separate base DL models for ARN and CMV retinitis, multitask learning (MTL) was employed to enable simultaneous discrimination. Advanced MTL models incorporating adversarial training were used to enhance DL feature extraction from the small, imbalanced data. We evaluated model performance, disease -specific important features, and the causal relationship between DL features and detection results. RESULTS. The presented models all achieved excellent detection performances, with the adversarial MTL model achieving the highest receiver operating characteristic curves (0.932 for ARN and 0.982 for CMV retinitis). Significant features for ARN detection included varicella-zoster virus (VZV) immunoglobulin M (IgM), herpes simplex virus immunoglobulin G, and neutrophil count, while for CMV retinitis, they encompassed VZV IgM, CMV IgM, and lymphocyte count. The adversarial MTL model exhibited substantial changes in detection outcomes when the key features were contaminated, indicating stronger causality between DL features and detection results. CONCLUSIONS. The adversarial MTL model, using blood test data, may serve as a reliable adjunct for the expedited diagnosis of ARN, CMV retinitis, and NIU-PS simultaneously in real clinical settings.