A robust privacy-preserving federated framework for kidney CT image classification using transfer learning models

Introduction Kidney abnormalities, including cysts, tumors, and stones, are the most common renal disorders that can lead to severe complications such as chronic kidney disease or renal failure. Deep learning-based medical image analysis offers an effective approach for the accurate classification of kidney abnormalities, aiding the early diagnosis of renal disorders. However, its centralized training leads to inadequate privacy protection. Methods Considering the importance of ensuring individuals' data privacy, this study proposes a novel federated transfer learning framework for accurate classification of renal abnormalities using 12,446 kidney CT scan images and simultaneously preserves data privacy. CT scan images were preprocessed by resizing and normalization, followed by data augmentation techniques, including random rotations (±30°), horizontal flips, and color jitter, to address class imbalance and improve model generalization. Five pre-trained deep learning models such as MobileNetV2, EfficientNetV2-S, ResNet50, DenseNet121, and InceptionResNetV2 were trained across seven federated clients. Federated weighted averaging was employed for aggregation, and AES-256 encryption in CBC mode was applied to all model parameter transmissions between clients and the server. Results MobileNetV2 achieved the best performance, attaining 99.48% accuracy, 99.29% precision, 99.32% recall, 99.3% F1-score, 0.9999 AUC-ROC, and log loss of 0.0247. Cross-client validation produced an average accuracy of 98.85% with a generalization gap of only −0.0063, indicating strong generalization across client datasets. Discussion The proposed framework provides an effective balance between privacy preservation and communication efficiency, highlighting its potential for deployment in distributed clinical environments for kidney disease diagnosis.