Comprehensive Lung Disease Detection Using Deep Learning Models and Hybrid Chest X-ray Data with Explainable AI

Advanced diagnostic instruments are crucial for the accurate detection and treatment of lung diseases, which affect millions of individuals globally. This study examines the effectiveness of deep learning and transfer learning models using a hybrid dataset, created by merging four individual datasets from Bangladesh and global sources. The hybrid dataset significantly enhances model accuracy and generalizability, particularly in detecting COVID-19, pneumonia, lung opacity and normal lung conditions from chest X-ray images. A range of models, including CNN, VGG16, VGG19, InceptionV3, Xception, ResNet50V2, InceptionResNetV2, MobileNetV2 and DenseNet121 are applied to both individual and hybrid dataset. The results show superior performance on the hybrid dataset, with VGG16, Xception, ResNet50V2 and DenseNet121 each achieving an accuracy, precision, recall and f1-score of 99%. This consistent performance across the hybrid dataset highlights the robustness of these models in handling diverse data while maintaining high accuracy. To understand the models implicit behavior, explainable AI techniques are employed to illuminate their black-box nature. Specifically, LIME is used to enhance the interpretability of model predictions, especially in cases of misclassification, contributing to the development of reliable and interpretable AI-driven solutions for medical imaging.