@article{EbigboMendelScheppachetal., author = {Ebigbo, Alanna and Mendel, Robert and Scheppach, Markus W. and Probst, Andreas and Shahidi, Neal and Prinz, Friederike and Fleischmann, Carola and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and G{\"o}lder, Stefan Karl and Braun, Georg and Rauber, David and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Byrne, Michael F. and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut}, title = {Vessel and tissue recognition during third-space endoscopy using a deep learning algorithm}, series = {Gut}, volume = {71}, journal = {Gut}, number = {12}, publisher = {BMJ}, address = {London}, doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326470}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-54293}, pages = {2388 -- 2390}, abstract = {In this study, we aimed to develop an artificial intelligence clinical decision support solution to mitigate operator-dependent limitations during complex endoscopic procedures such as endoscopic submucosal dissection and peroral endoscopic myotomy, for example, bleeding and perforation. A DeepLabv3-based model was trained to delineate vessels, tissue structures and instruments on endoscopic still images from such procedures. The mean cross-validated Intersection over Union and Dice Score were 63\% and 76\%, respectively. Applied to standardised video clips from third-space endoscopic procedures, the algorithm showed a mean vessel detection rate of 85\% with a false-positive rate of 0.75/min. These performance statistics suggest a potential clinical benefit for procedure safety, time and also training.}, language = {en} } @article{SouzaJrPalmMendeletal., author = {Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Palm, Christoph and Mendel, Robert and Hook, Christian and Ebigbo, Alanna and Probst, Andreas and Messmann, Helmut and Weber, Silke A. T. and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo}, title = {A survey on Barrett's esophagus analysis using machine learning}, series = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, volume = {96}, journal = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, publisher = {Elsevier}, doi = {10.1016/j.compbiomed.2018.03.014}, pages = {203 -- 213}, abstract = {This work presents a systematic review concerning recent studies and technologies of machine learning for Barrett's esophagus (BE) diagnosis and treatment. The use of artificial intelligence is a brand new and promising way to evaluate such disease. We compile some works published at some well-established databases, such as Science Direct, IEEEXplore, PubMed, Plos One, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Springer, and Hindawi Publishing Corporation. Each selected work has been analyzed to present its objective, methodology, and results. The BE progression to dysplasia or adenocarcinoma shows a complex pattern to be detected during endoscopic surveillance. Therefore, it is valuable to assist its diagnosis and automatic identification using computer analysis. The evaluation of the BE dysplasia can be performed through manual or automated segmentation through machine learning techniques. Finally, in this survey, we reviewed recent studies focused on the automatic detection of the neoplastic region for classification purposes using machine learning methods.}, subject = {Speiser{\"o}hrenkrankheit}, language = {en} } @article{EbigboPalmProbstetal., author = {Ebigbo, Alanna and Palm, Christoph and Probst, Andreas and Mendel, Robert and Manzeneder, Johannes and Prinz, Friederike and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Siersema, Peter and Messmann, Helmut}, title = {A technical review of artificial intelligence as applied to gastrointestinal endoscopy: clarifying the terminology}, series = {Endoscopy International Open}, volume = {07}, journal = {Endoscopy International Open}, number = {12}, publisher = {Georg Thieme Verlag}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/a-1010-5705}, pages = {1616 -- 1623}, abstract = {The growing number of publications on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine underlines the enormous importance and potential of this emerging field of research. In gastrointestinal endoscopy, AI has been applied to all segments of the gastrointestinal tract most importantly in the detection and characterization of colorectal polyps. However, AI research has been published also in the stomach and esophagus for both neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders. The various technical as well as medical aspects of AI, however, remain confusing especially for non-expert physicians. This physician-engineer co-authored review explains the basic technical aspects of AI and provides a comprehensive overview of recent publications on AI in gastrointestinal endoscopy. Finally, a basic insight is offered into understanding publications on AI in gastrointestinal endoscopy.}, subject = {Diagnose}, language = {en} } @article{MeinikheimMendelPalmetal., author = {Meinikheim, Michael and Mendel, Robert and Palm, Christoph and Probst, Andreas and Muzalyova, Anna and Scheppach, Markus W. and Nagl, Sandra and Schnoy, Elisabeth and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Schulz, Dominik Andreas Helmut Otto and Schlottmann, Jakob and Prinz, Friederike and Rauber, David and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Matsumura, Tomoaki and Fern{\´a}ndez-Esparrach, Gl{\`o}ria and Parsa, Nasim and Byrne, Michael F. and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Influence of artificial intelligence on the diagnostic performance of endoscopists in the assessment of Barrett's esophagus: a tandem randomized and video trial}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {56}, journal = {Endoscopy}, publisher = {Georg Thieme Verlag}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/a-2296-5696}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-72818}, pages = {641 -- 649}, abstract = {Background This study evaluated the effect of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based clinical decision support system on the performance and diagnostic confidence of endoscopists in their assessment of Barrett's esophagus (BE). Methods 96 standardized endoscopy videos were assessed by 22 endoscopists with varying degrees of BE experience from 12 centers. Assessment was randomized into two video sets: group A (review first without AI and second with AI) and group B (review first with AI and second without AI). Endoscopists were required to evaluate each video for the presence of Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia (BERN) and then decide on a spot for a targeted biopsy. After the second assessment, they were allowed to change their clinical decision and confidence level. Results AI had a stand-alone sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 92.2\%, 68.9\%, and 81.3\%, respectively. Without AI, BE experts had an overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 83.3\%, 58.1\%, and 71.5\%, respectively. With AI, BE nonexperts showed a significant improvement in sensitivity and specificity when videos were assessed a second time with AI (sensitivity 69.8\% [95\%CI 65.2\%-74.2\%] to 78.0\% [95\%CI 74.0\%-82.0\%]; specificity 67.3\% [95\%CI 62.5\%-72.2\%] to 72.7\% [95\%CI 68.2\%-77.3\%]). In addition, the diagnostic confidence of BE nonexperts improved significantly with AI. Conclusion BE nonexperts benefitted significantly from additional AI. BE experts and nonexperts remained significantly below the stand-alone performance of AI, suggesting that there may be other factors influencing endoscopists' decisions to follow or discard AI advice.}, language = {en} } @misc{ScheppachMendelRauberetal., author = {Scheppach, Markus W. and Mendel, Robert and Rauber, David and Probst, Andreas and Nagl, Sandra and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Meinikheim, Michael and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves endoscopists' vessel detection during endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {56}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {S 02}, publisher = {Thieme}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/s-0044-1782891}, pages = {S93}, abstract = {Aims While AI has been successfully implemented in detecting and characterizing colonic polyps, its role in therapeutic endoscopy remains to be elucidated. Especially third space endoscopy procedures like ESD and peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) pose a technical challenge and the risk of operator-dependent complications like intraprocedural bleeding and perforation. Therefore, we aimed at developing an AI-algorithm for intraprocedural real time vessel detection during ESD and POEM. Methods A training dataset consisting of 5470 annotated still images from 59 full-length videos (47 ESD, 12 POEM) and 179681 unlabeled images was used to train a DeepLabV3+neural network with the ECMT semi-supervised learning method. Evaluation for vessel detection rate (VDR) and time (VDT) of 19 endoscopists with and without AI-support was performed using a testing dataset of 101 standardized video clips with 200 predefined blood vessels. Endoscopists were stratified into trainees and experts in third space endoscopy. Results The AI algorithm had a mean VDR of 93.5\% and a median VDT of 0.32 seconds. AI support was associated with a statistically significant increase in VDR from 54.9\% to 73.0\% and from 59.0\% to 74.1\% for trainees and experts, respectively. VDT significantly decreased from 7.21 sec to 5.09 sec for trainees and from 6.10 sec to 5.38 sec for experts in the AI-support group. False positive (FP) readings occurred in 4.5\% of frames. FP structures were detected significantly shorter than true positives (0.71 sec vs. 5.99 sec). Conclusions AI improved VDR and VDT of trainees and experts in third space endoscopy and may reduce performance variability during training. Further research is needed to evaluate the clinical impact of this new technology.}, language = {en} } @misc{RoserMeinikheimMendeletal., author = {Roser, David and Meinikheim, Michael and Mendel, Robert and Palm, Christoph and Probst, Andreas and Muzalyova, Anna and Scheppach, Markus W. and Nagl, Sandra and Schnoy, Elisabeth and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Schulz, Dominik Andreas Helmut Otto and Schlottmann, Jakob and Prinz, Friederike and Rauber, David and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Matsumura, Tomoaki and Fernandez-Esparrach, G. and Parsa, Nasim and Byrne, Michael F. and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Human-Computer Interaction: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the diagnostic confidence of endoscopists assessing videos of Barrett's esophagus}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {56}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {S 02}, publisher = {Georg Thieme Verlag}, issn = {1438-8812}, doi = {10.1055/s-0044-1782859}, pages = {79}, abstract = {Aims Human-computer interactions (HCI) may have a relevant impact on the performance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Studies show that although endoscopists assessing Barrett's esophagus (BE) with AI improve their performance significantly, they do not achieve the level of the stand-alone performance of AI. One aspect of HCI is the impact of AI on the degree of certainty and confidence displayed by the endoscopist. Indirectly, diagnostic confidence when using AI may be linked to trust and acceptance of AI. In a BE video study, we aimed to understand the impact of AI on the diagnostic confidence of endoscopists and the possible correlation with diagnostic performance. Methods 22 endoscopists from 12 centers with varying levels of BE experience reviewed ninety-six standardized endoscopy videos. Endoscopists were categorized into experts and non-experts and randomly assigned to assess the videos with and without AI. Participants were randomized in two arms: Arm A assessed videos first without AI and then with AI, while Arm B assessed videos in the opposite order. Evaluators were tasked with identifying BE-related neoplasia and rating their confidence with and without AI on a scale from 0 to 9. Results The utilization of AI in Arm A (without AI first, with AI second) significantly elevated confidence levels for experts and non-experts (7.1 to 8.0 and 6.1 to 6.6, respectively). Only non-experts benefitted from AI with a significant increase in accuracy (68.6\% to 75.5\%). Interestingly, while the confidence levels of experts without AI were higher than those of non-experts with AI, there was no significant difference in accuracy between these two groups (71.3\% vs. 75.5\%). In Arm B (with AI first, without AI second), experts and non-experts experienced a significant reduction in confidence (7.6 to 7.1 and 6.4 to 6.2, respectively), while maintaining consistent accuracy levels (71.8\% to 71.8\% and 67.5\% to 67.1\%, respectively). Conclusions AI significantly enhanced confidence levels for both expert and non-expert endoscopists. Endoscopists felt significantly more uncertain in their assessments without AI. Furthermore, experts with or without AI consistently displayed higher confidence levels than non-experts with AI, irrespective of comparable outcomes. These findings underscore the possible role of AI in improving diagnostic confidence during endoscopic assessment.}, language = {en} } @article{SouzaJrMendelStrasseretal., author = {Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Mendel, Robert and Strasser, Sophia and Ebigbo, Alanna and Probst, Andreas and Messmann, Helmut and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Palm, Christoph}, title = {Convolutional Neural Networks for the evaluation of cancer in Barrett's esophagus: Explainable AI to lighten up the black-box}, series = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, volume = {135}, journal = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, publisher = {Elsevier}, issn = {0010-4825}, doi = {10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104578}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-20126}, pages = {1 -- 14}, abstract = {Even though artificial intelligence and machine learning have demonstrated remarkable performances in medical image computing, their level of accountability and transparency must be provided in such evaluations. The reliability related to machine learning predictions must be explained and interpreted, especially if diagnosis support is addressed. For this task, the black-box nature of deep learning techniques must be lightened up to transfer its promising results into clinical practice. Hence, we aim to investigate the use of explainable artificial intelligence techniques to quantitatively highlight discriminative regions during the classification of earlycancerous tissues in Barrett's esophagus-diagnosed patients. Four Convolutional Neural Network models (AlexNet, SqueezeNet, ResNet50, and VGG16) were analyzed using five different interpretation techniques (saliency, guided backpropagation, integrated gradients, input × gradients, and DeepLIFT) to compare their agreement with experts' previous annotations of cancerous tissue. We could show that saliency attributes match best with the manual experts' delineations. Moreover, there is moderate to high correlation between the sensitivity of a model and the human-and-computer agreement. The results also lightened that the higher the model's sensitivity, the stronger the correlation of human and computational segmentation agreement. We observed a relevant relation between computational learning and experts' insights, demonstrating how human knowledge may influence the correct computational learning.}, subject = {Deep Learning}, language = {en} } @misc{EbigboMendelProbstetal., author = {Ebigbo, Alanna and Mendel, Robert and Probst, Andreas and Manzeneder, Johannes and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut}, title = {Artificial Intelligence in Early Barrett's Cancer: The Segmentation Task}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {51}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {04}, publisher = {Georg Thieme Verlag}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/s-0039-1681187}, pages = {6}, abstract = {Aims: The delineation of outer margins of early Barrett's cancer can be challenging even for experienced endoscopists. Artificial intelligence (AI) could assist endoscopists faced with this task. As of date, there is very limited experience in this domain. In this study, we demonstrate the measure of overlap (Dice coefficient = D) between highly experienced Barrett endoscopists and an AI system in the delineation of cancer margins (segmentation task). Methods: An AI system with a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained and tested on high-definition endoscopic images of early Barrett's cancer (n = 33) and normal Barrett's mucosa (n = 41). The reference standard for the segmentation task were the manual delineations of tumor margins by three highly experienced Barrett endoscopists. Training of the AI system included patch generation, patch augmentation and adjustment of the CNN weights. Then, the segmentation results from patch classification and thresholding of the class probabilities. Segmentation results were evaluated using the Dice coefficient (D). Results: The Dice coefficient (D) which can range between 0 (no overlap) and 1 (complete overlap) was computed only for images correctly classified by the AI-system as cancerous. At a threshold of t = 0.5, a mean value of D = 0.72 was computed. Conclusions: AI with CNN performed reasonably well in the segmentation of the tumor region in Barrett's cancer, at least when compared with expert Barrett's endoscopists. AI holds a lot of promise as a tool for better visualization of tumor margins but may need further improvement and enhancement especially in real-time settings.}, subject = {Speiser{\"o}hrenkrankheit}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SouzaJrEbigboProbstetal., author = {Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Ebigbo, Alanna and Probst, Andreas and Messmann, Helmut and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Mendel, Robert and Palm, Christoph}, title = {Barrett's Esophagus Identification Using Color Co-occurrence Matrices}, series = {31st SIBGRAPI Conference on Graphics, Patterns and Images (SIBGRAPI), Parana, 2018}, booktitle = {31st SIBGRAPI Conference on Graphics, Patterns and Images (SIBGRAPI), Parana, 2018}, doi = {10.1109/SIBGRAPI.2018.00028}, pages = {166 -- 173}, abstract = {In this work, we propose the use of single channel Color Co-occurrence Matrices for texture description of Barrett'sEsophagus (BE)and adenocarcinoma images. Further classification using supervised learning techniques, such as Optimum-Path Forest (OPF), Support Vector Machines with Radial Basisunction (SVM-RBF) and Bayesian classifier supports the contextof automatic BE and adenocarcinoma diagnosis. We validated three approaches of classification based on patches, patients and images in two datasets (MICCAI 2015 and Augsburg) using the color-and-texture descriptors and the machine learning techniques. Concerning MICCAI 2015 dataset, the best results were obtained using the blue channel for the descriptors and the supervised OPF for classification purposes in the patch-based approach, with sensitivity nearly to 73\% for positive adenocarcinoma identification and specificity close to 77\% for BE (non-cancerous) patch classification. Regarding the Augsburg dataset, the most accurate results were also obtained using both OPF classifier and blue channel descriptor for the feature extraction, with sensitivity close to 67\% and specificity around to76\%. Our work highlights new advances in the related research area and provides a promising technique that combines color and texture information, allied to three different approaches of dataset pre-processing aiming to configure robust scenarios for the classification step.}, language = {en} } @article{EbigboMendelProbstetal., author = {Ebigbo, Alanna and Mendel, Robert and Probst, Andreas and Manzeneder, Johannes and Prinz, Friederike and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut}, title = {Real-time use of artificial intelligence in the evaluation of cancer in Barrett's oesophagus}, series = {Gut}, volume = {69}, journal = {Gut}, number = {4}, publisher = {BMJ}, address = {London}, doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319460}, pages = {615 -- 616}, abstract = {Based on previous work by our group with manual annotation of visible Barrett oesophagus (BE) cancer images, a real-time deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) system was developed. While an expert endoscopist conducts the endoscopic assessment of BE, our AI system captures random images from the real-time camera livestream and provides a global prediction (classification), as well as a dense prediction (segmentation) differentiating accurately between normal BE and early oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). The AI system showed an accuracy of 89.9\% on 14 cases with neoplastic BE.}, subject = {Speiser{\"o}hrenkrankheit}, language = {en} } @article{EbigboMendelRueckertetal., author = {Ebigbo, Alanna and Mendel, Robert and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Schuster, Laurin and Probst, Andreas and Manzeneder, Johannes and Prinz, Friederike and Mende, Matthias and Steinbr{\"u}ck, Ingo and Faiss, Siegbert and Rauber, David and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Deprez, Pierre and Oyama, Tsuneo and Takahashi, Akiko and Seewald, Stefan and Sharma, Prateek and Byrne, Michael F. and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut}, title = {Endoscopic prediction of submucosal invasion in Barrett's cancer with the use of Artificial Intelligence: A pilot Study}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {53}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {09}, publisher = {Thieme}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/a-1311-8570}, pages = {878 -- 883}, abstract = {Background and aims: The accurate differentiation between T1a and T1b Barrett's cancer has both therapeutic and prognostic implications but is challenging even for experienced physicians. We trained an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system on the basis of deep artificial neural networks (deep learning) to differentiate between T1a and T1b Barrett's cancer white-light images. Methods: Endoscopic images from three tertiary care centres in Germany were collected retrospectively. A deep learning system was trained and tested using the principles of cross-validation. A total of 230 white-light endoscopic images (108 T1a and 122 T1b) was evaluated with the AI-system. For comparison, the images were also classified by experts specialized in endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of Barrett's cancer. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, F1 and accuracy of the AI-system in the differentiation between T1a and T1b cancer lesions was 0.77, 0.64, 0.73 and 0.71, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the performance of the AI-system and that of human experts with sensitivity, specificity, F1 and accuracy of 0.63, 0.78, 0.67 and 0.70 respectively. Conclusion: This pilot study demonstrates the first multicenter application of an AI-based system in the prediction of submucosal invasion in endoscopic images of Barrett's cancer. AI scored equal to international experts in the field, but more work is necessary to improve the system and apply it to video sequences and in a real-life setting. Nevertheless, the correct prediction of submucosal invasion in Barret´s cancer remains challenging for both experts and AI.}, subject = {Maschinelles Lernen}, language = {en} } @article{SouzaJrPassosMendeletal., author = {Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Passos, Leandro A. and Mendel, Robert and Ebigbo, Alanna and Probst, Andreas and Messmann, Helmut and Palm, Christoph and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo}, title = {Assisting Barrett's esophagus identification using endoscopic data augmentation based on Generative Adversarial Networks}, series = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, volume = {126}, journal = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, number = {November}, publisher = {Elsevier}, doi = {10.1016/j.compbiomed.2020.104029}, pages = {12}, abstract = {Barrett's esophagus figured a swift rise in the number of cases in the past years. Although traditional diagnosis methods offered a vital role in early-stage treatment, they are generally time- and resource-consuming. In this context, computer-aided approaches for automatic diagnosis emerged in the literature since early detection is intrinsically related to remission probabilities. However, they still suffer from drawbacks because of the lack of available data for machine learning purposes, thus implying reduced recognition rates. This work introduces Generative Adversarial Networks to generate high-quality endoscopic images, thereby identifying Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma more precisely. Further, Convolution Neural Networks are used for feature extraction and classification purposes. The proposed approach is validated over two datasets of endoscopic images, with the experiments conducted over the full and patch-split images. The application of Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks for the data augmentation step and LeNet-5 and AlexNet for the classification step allowed us to validate the proposed methodology over an extensive set of datasets (based on original and augmented sets), reaching results of 90\% of accuracy for the patch-based approach and 85\% for the image-based approach. Both results are based on augmented datasets and are statistically different from the ones obtained in the original datasets of the same kind. Moreover, the impact of data augmentation was evaluated in the context of image description and classification, and the results obtained using synthetic images outperformed the ones over the original datasets, as well as other recent approaches from the literature. Such results suggest promising insights related to the importance of proper data for the accurate classification concerning computer-assisted Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma detection.}, subject = {Maschinelles Lernen}, language = {en} } @article{MendelRauberSouzaJretal., author = {Mendel, Robert and Rauber, David and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Palm, Christoph}, title = {Error-Correcting Mean-Teacher: Corrections instead of consistency-targets applied to semi-supervised medical image segmentation}, series = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, volume = {154}, journal = {Computers in Biology and Medicine}, number = {March}, publisher = {Elsevier}, issn = {0010-4825}, doi = {10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.106585}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-57790}, pages = {13}, abstract = {Semantic segmentation is an essential task in medical imaging research. Many powerful deep-learning-based approaches can be employed for this problem, but they are dependent on the availability of an expansive labeled dataset. In this work, we augment such supervised segmentation models to be suitable for learning from unlabeled data. Our semi-supervised approach, termed Error-Correcting Mean-Teacher, uses an exponential moving average model like the original Mean Teacher but introduces our new paradigm of error correction. The original segmentation network is augmented to handle this secondary correction task. Both tasks build upon the core feature extraction layers of the model. For the correction task, features detected in the input image are fused with features detected in the predicted segmentation and further processed with task-specific decoder layers. The combination of image and segmentation features allows the model to correct present mistakes in the given input pair. The correction task is trained jointly on the labeled data. On unlabeled data, the exponential moving average of the original network corrects the student's prediction. The combined outputs of the students' prediction with the teachers' correction form the basis for the semi-supervised update. We evaluate our method with the 2017 and 2018 Robotic Scene Segmentation data, the ISIC 2017 and the BraTS 2020 Challenges, a proprietary Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection dataset, Cityscapes, and Pascal VOC 2012. Additionally, we analyze the impact of the individual components and examine the behavior when the amount of labeled data varies, with experiments performed on two distinct segmentation architectures. Our method shows improvements in terms of the mean Intersection over Union over the supervised baseline and competing methods. Code is available at https://github.com/CloneRob/ECMT.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{MendelSouzaJrRauberetal., author = {Mendel, Robert and Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Rauber, David and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo and Palm, Christoph}, title = {Semi-supervised Segmentation Based on Error-Correcting Supervision}, series = {Computer vision - ECCV 2020: 16th European conference, Glasgow, UK, August 23-28, 2020, Proceedings, Part XXIX}, booktitle = {Computer vision - ECCV 2020: 16th European conference, Glasgow, UK, August 23-28, 2020, Proceedings, Part XXIX}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-030-58525-9}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-58526-6_9}, pages = {141 -- 157}, abstract = {Pixel-level classification is an essential part of computer vision. For learning from labeled data, many powerful deep learning models have been developed recently. In this work, we augment such supervised segmentation models by allowing them to learn from unlabeled data. Our semi-supervised approach, termed Error-Correcting Supervision, leverages a collaborative strategy. Apart from the supervised training on the labeled data, the segmentation network is judged by an additional network. The secondary correction network learns on the labeled data to optimally spot correct predictions, as well as to amend incorrect ones. As auxiliary regularization term, the corrector directly influences the supervised training of the segmentation network. On unlabeled data, the output of the correction network is essential to create a proxy for the unknown truth. The corrector's output is combined with the segmentation network's prediction to form the new target. We propose a loss function that incorporates both the pseudo-labels as well as the predictive certainty of the correction network. Our approach can easily be added to supervised segmentation models. We show consistent improvements over a supervised baseline on experiments on both the Pascal VOC 2012 and the Cityscapes datasets with varying amounts of labeled data.}, subject = {Semi-Supervised Learning}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SouzaJrPassosMendeletal., author = {Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de and Passos, Leandro A. and Mendel, Robert and Ebigbo, Alanna and Probst, Andreas and Messmann, Helmut and Palm, Christoph and Papa, Jo{\~a}o Paulo}, title = {Fine-tuning Generative Adversarial Networks using Metaheuristics}, series = {Bildverarbeitung f{\"u}r die Medizin 2021. Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Regensburg, March 7-9, 2021}, booktitle = {Bildverarbeitung f{\"u}r die Medizin 2021. Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Regensburg, March 7-9, 2021}, publisher = {Springer Vieweg}, address = {Wiesbaden}, isbn = {978-3-658-33197-9}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_50}, pages = {205 -- 210}, abstract = {Barrett's esophagus denotes a disorder in the digestive system that affects the esophagus' mucosal cells, causing reflux, and showing potential convergence to esophageal adenocarcinoma if not treated in initial stages. Thus, fast and reliable computer-aided diagnosis becomes considerably welcome. Nevertheless, such approaches usually suffer from imbalanced datasets, which can be addressed through Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Such techniques generate realistic images based on observed samples, even though at the cost of a proper selection of its hyperparameters. Many works employed a class of nature-inspired algorithms called metaheuristics to tackle the problem considering distinct deep learning approaches. Therefore, this paper's main contribution is to introduce metaheuristic techniques to fine-tune GANs in the context of Barrett's esophagus identification, as well as to investigate the feasibility of generating high-quality synthetic images for early-cancer assisted identification.}, subject = {Endoskopie}, language = {en} } @article{RoemmeleMendelBarrettetal., author = {R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Mendel, Robert and Barrett, Caroline and Kiesl, Hans and Rauber, David and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Kraus, Lisa and Heinkele, Jakob and Dhillon, Christine and Grosser, Bianca and Prinz, Friederike and Wanzl, Julia and Fleischmann, Carola and Nagl, Sandra and Schnoy, Elisabeth and Schlottmann, Jakob and Dellon, Evan S. and Messmann, Helmut and Palm, Christoph and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {An artificial intelligence algorithm is highly accurate for detecting endoscopic features of eosinophilic esophagitis}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {12}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Nature Portfolio}, address = {London}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-022-14605-z}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-46928}, pages = {10}, abstract = {The endoscopic features associated with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) may be missed during routine endoscopy. We aimed to develop and evaluate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm for detecting and quantifying the endoscopic features of EoE in white light images, supplemented by the EoE Endoscopic Reference Score (EREFS). An AI algorithm (AI-EoE) was constructed and trained to differentiate between EoE and normal esophagus using endoscopic white light images extracted from the database of the University Hospital Augsburg. In addition to binary classification, a second algorithm was trained with specific auxiliary branches for each EREFS feature (AI-EoE-EREFS). The AI algorithms were evaluated on an external data set from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), and compared with the performance of human endoscopists with varying levels of experience. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of AI-EoE were 0.93 for all measures, while the AUC was 0.986. With additional auxiliary branches for the EREFS categories, the AI algorithm (AI-EoEEREFS) performance improved to 0.96, 0.94, 0.95, and 0.992 for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC, respectively. AI-EoE and AI-EoE-EREFS performed significantly better than endoscopy beginners and senior fellows on the same set of images. An AI algorithm can be trained to detect and quantify endoscopic features of EoE with excellent performance scores. The addition of the EREFS criteria improved the performance of the AI algorithm, which performed significantly better than endoscopists with a lower or medium experience level.}, language = {en} } @article{RoserMeinikheimMuzalyovaetal., author = {Roser, David and Meinikheim, Michael and Muzalyova, Anna and Mendel, Robert and Palm, Christoph and Probst, Andreas and Nagl, Sandra and Scheppach, Markus W. and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Schnoy, Elisabeth and Parsa, Nasim and Byrne, Michael F. and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Artificial intelligence-assisted endoscopy and examiner confidence : a study on human-artificial intelligence interaction in Barrett's Esophagus (With Video)}, series = {DEN Open}, volume = {6}, journal = {DEN Open}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, doi = {10.1002/deo2.70150}, pages = {8}, abstract = {Objective Despite high stand-alone performance, studies demonstrate that artificial intelligence (AI)-supported endoscopic diagnostics often fall short in clinical applications due to human-AI interaction factors. This video-based trial on Barrett's esophagus aimed to investigate how examiner behavior, their levels of confidence, and system usability influence the diagnostic outcomes of AI-assisted endoscopy. Methods The present analysis employed data from a multicenter randomized controlled tandem video trial involving 22 endoscopists with varying degrees of expertise. Participants were tasked with evaluating a set of 96 endoscopic videos of Barrett's esophagus in two distinct rounds, with and without AI assistance. Diagnostic confidence levels were recorded, and decision changes were categorized according to the AI prediction. Additional surveys assessed user experience and system usability ratings. Results AI assistance significantly increased examiner confidence levels (p < 0.001) and accuracy. Withdrawing AI assistance decreased confidence (p < 0.001), but not accuracy. Experts consistently reported higher confidence than non-experts (p < 0.001), regardless of performance. Despite improved confidence, correct AI guidance was disregarded in 16\% of all cases, and 9\% of initially correct diagnoses were changed to incorrect ones. Overreliance on AI, algorithm aversion, and uncertainty in AI predictions were identified as key factors influencing outcomes. The System Usability Scale questionnaire scores indicated good to excellent usability, with non-experts scoring 73.5 and experts 85.6. Conclusions Our findings highlight the pivotal function of examiner behavior in AI-assisted endoscopy. To fully realize the benefits of AI, implementing explainable AI, improving user interfaces, and providing targeted training are essential. Addressing these factors could enhance diagnostic accuracy and confidence in clinical practice.}, language = {en} } @misc{RoemmeleMendelRauberetal., author = {R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Mendel, Robert and Rauber, David and R{\"u}ckert, Tobias and Byrne, Michael F. and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Endoscopic Diagnosis of Eosinophilic Esophagitis Using a deep Learning Algorithm}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {53}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {S 01}, publisher = {Georg Thieme Verlag}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/s-0041-1724274}, abstract = {Aims Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is easily missed during endoscopy, either because physicians are not familiar with its endoscopic features or the morphologic changes are too subtle. In this preliminary paper, we present the first attempt to detect EoE in endoscopic white light (WL) images using a deep learning network (EoE-AI). Methods 401 WL images of eosinophilic esophagitis and 871 WL images of normal esophageal mucosa were evaluated. All images were assessed for the Endoscopic Reference score (EREFS) (edema, rings, exudates, furrows, strictures). Images with strictures were excluded. EoE was defined as the presence of at least 15 eosinophils per high power field on biopsy. A convolutional neural network based on the ResNet architecture with several five-fold cross-validation runs was used. Adding auxiliary EREFS-classification branches to the neural network allowed the inclusion of the scores as optimization criteria during training. EoE-AI was evaluated for sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. In addition, two human endoscopists evaluated the images. Results EoE-AI showed a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1 of 0.759, 0.976, and 0.834 respectively, averaged over the five distinct cross-validation runs. With the EREFS-augmented architecture, a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.848, 0.945, and 0.861 could be demonstrated respectively. In comparison, the two human endoscopists had an average sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.718, 0.958, and 0.793. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of deep learning to endoscopic images of EoE which were also assessed after augmentation with the EREFS-score. The next step is the evaluation of EoE-AI using an external dataset. We then plan to assess the EoE-AI tool on endoscopic videos, and also in real-time. This preliminary work is encouraging regarding the ability for AI to enhance physician detection of EoE, and potentially to do a true "optical biopsy" but more work is needed.}, language = {en} } @misc{MeinikheimMendelProbstetal., author = {Meinikheim, Michael and Mendel, Robert and Probst, Andreas and Scheppach, Markus W. and Schnoy, Elisabeth and Nagl, Sandra and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Prinz, Friederike and Schlottmann, Jakob and Golger, Daniela and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {AI-assisted detection and characterization of early Barrett's neoplasia: Results of an Interim analysis}, series = {Endoscopy}, volume = {55}, journal = {Endoscopy}, number = {S02}, publisher = {Thieme}, doi = {10.1055/s-0043-1765437}, pages = {S169}, abstract = {Aims Evaluation of the add-on effect an artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support system has on the performance of endoscopists with different degrees of expertise in the field of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia (BERN). Methods The support system is based on a multi-task deep learning model trained to solve a segmentation and several classification tasks. The training approach represents an extension of the ECMT semi-supervised learning algorithm. The complete system evaluates a decision tree between estimated motion, classification, segmentation, and temporal constraints, to decide when and how the prediction is highlighted to the observer. In our current study, ninety-six video cases of patients with BE and BERN were prospectively collected and assessed by Barrett's specialists and non-specialists. All video cases were evaluated twice - with and without AI assistance. The order of appearance, either with or without AI support, was assigned randomly. Participants were asked to detect and characterize regions of dysplasia or early neoplasia within the video sequences. Results Standalone sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the AI system were 92.16\%, 68.89\%, and 81.25\%, respectively. Mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of expert endoscopists without AI support were 83,33\%, 58,20\%, and 71,48 \%, respectively. Gastroenterologists without Barrett's expertise but with AI support had a comparable performance with a mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 76,63\%, 65,35\%, and 71,36\%, respectively. Conclusions Non-Barrett's experts with AI support had a similar performance as experts in a video-based study.}, language = {en} } @article{ScheppachMendelMuzalyovaetal., author = {Scheppach, Markus W. and Mendel, Robert and Muzalyova, Anna and Rauber, David and Probst, Andreas and Nagl, Sandra and R{\"o}mmele, Christoph and Yip, Hon Chi and Lau, Louis Ho Shing and G{\"o}lder, Stefan Karl and Schmidt, Arthur and Kouladouros, Konstantinos and Abdelhafez, Mohamed and Walter, Benjamin M. and Meinikheim, Michael and Chiu, Philip Wai Yan and Palm, Christoph and Messmann, Helmut and Ebigbo, Alanna}, title = {Artificial intelligence improves submucosal vessel detection during third space endoscopy}, series = {Endoscopy}, journal = {Endoscopy}, publisher = {Thieme}, address = {Stuttgart}, doi = {10.1055/a-2534-1164}, abstract = {Background and study aims: While artificial intelligence (AI) shows high potential in decision support for diagnostic gastrointestinal endoscopy, its role in therapeutic endoscopy remains unclear. Third space endoscopic procedures pose the risk of intraprocedural bleeding. Therefore, we aimed to develop an AI algorithm for intraprocedural blood vessel detection. Patients and Methods: Using a test dataset with 101 standardized video clips containing 200 predefined submucosal blood vessels, 19 endoscopists were evaluated for the vessel detection rate (VDR) and time (VDT) with and without support of an AI algorithm. Test subjects were grouped according to experience in ESD. Results: With AI support, endoscopists VDR increased from 56.4\% [CI 54.1-58.6] to 72.4\% [CI 70.3-74.4]. Endoscopists' VDT dropped from 6.7sec [CI 6.2-7.1] to 5.2sec [CI 4.8-5.7]. False positive (FP) readings appeared in 4.5\% of frames and were marked significantly shorter than true positives (6.0sec [CI 5.28-6.70] vs. 0.7sec [CI 0.55-0.87]). Conclusions: AI improved the vessel detection rate and time of endoscopists during third space endoscopy. While these data need to be corroborated by clinical trials, AI may prove to be an invaluable tool for the improvement of endoscopic interventions.}, language = {en} }