ReCoNet: Multi level Preprocessing of Chest X rays for COVID 19 Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Life-threatening COVID-19 detection from radiomic features has become a dire need of the present time for infection control and socio-economic crisis management around the world. In this paper, a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture, ReCoNet (residual image-based COVID-19 detection network), is proposed for COVID-19 detection. This is achieved from chest X-ray (CXR) images shedding light on the preprocessing task considered to be very useful for enhancing the COVID-19 fingerprints. The proposed modular architecture consists of a CNN-based multi-level preprocessing filter block in cascade with a multi-layer CNN-based feature extractor and a classification block. A multi-task learning loss function is adopted for optimization of the preprocessing block trained end-to-end with the rest of the proposed network. Additionally, a data augmentation technique is applied for boosting the network performance. The whole network when pre-trained end-to-end on the CheXpert open source dataset, and trained and tested with the COVIDx dataset of 15,134 original CXR images yielded an overall benchmark accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 97.48%, 96.39%, and 97.53%, respectively. The immense potential of ReCoNet may be exploited in clinics for rapid and safe detection of COVID-19 globally, in particular in the low and middle income countries where RT-PCR labs and/or kits are in a serious crisis. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement No external funding. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Our research is based on publicly available datasets. All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes We are using two open access datasets: 1. CheXpert () 2. COVIDx ()