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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.
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.
Aims
VA is an endoscopic finding of celiac disease (CD), which can easily be missed if pretest probability is low. In this study, we aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for the detection of villous atrophy on endoscopic images.
Methods
858 images from 182 patients with VA and 846 images from 323 patients with normal duodenal mucosa were used for training and internal validation of an AI algorithm (ResNet18). A separate dataset was used for external validation, as well as determination of detection performance of experts, trainees and trainees with AI support. According to the AI consultation distribution, images were stratified into “easy” and “difficult”.
Results
Internal validation showed 82%, 85% and 84% for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. External validation showed 90%, 76% and 84%. The algorithm was significantly more sensitive and accurate than trainees, trainees with AI support and experts in endoscopy. AI support in trainees was associated with significantly improved performance. While all endoscopists showed significantly lower detection for “difficult” images, AI performance remained stable.
Conclusions
The algorithm outperformed trainees and experts in sensitivity and accuracy for VA detection. The significant improvement with AI support suggests a potential clinical benefit. Stable performance of the algorithm in “easy” and “difficult” test images may indicate an advantage in macroscopically challenging cases.
Background and aims
Celiac disease with its endoscopic manifestation of villous atrophy is underdiagnosed worldwide. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) for the macroscopic detection of villous atrophy at routine esophagogastroduodenoscopy may improve diagnostic performance.
Methods
A dataset of 858 endoscopic images of 182 patients with villous atrophy and 846 images from 323 patients with normal duodenal mucosa was collected and used to train a ResNet 18 deep learning model to detect villous atrophy. An external data set was used to test the algorithm, in addition to six fellows and four board certified gastroenterologists. Fellows could consult the AI algorithm’s result during the test. From their consultation distribution, a stratification of test images into “easy” and “difficult” was performed and used for classified performance measurement.
Results
External validation of the AI algorithm yielded values of 90 %, 76 %, and 84 % for sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, respectively. Fellows scored values of 63 %, 72 % and 67 %, while the corresponding values in experts were 72 %, 69 % and 71 %, respectively. AI consultation significantly improved all trainee performance statistics. While fellows and experts showed significantly lower performance for “difficult” images, the performance of the AI algorithm was stable.
Conclusion
In this study, an AI algorithm outperformed endoscopy fellows and experts in the detection of villous atrophy on endoscopic still images. AI decision support significantly improved the performance of non-expert endoscopists. The stable performance on “difficult” images suggests a further positive add-on effect in challenging cases.
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.
The German workshop on medical image computing (BVM) has been held in different locations in Germany for more than 20 years. In terms of content, BVM focused on the computer-aided analysis of medical image data with a wide range of applications, e.g. in the area of imaging, diagnostics, operation planning, computer-aided intervention and visualization.
During this time, there have been remarkable methodological developments and upheavals, on which the BVM community has worked intensively. The area of machine learning should be emphasized, which has led to significant improvements, especially for tasks of classification and segmentation, but increasingly also in image formation and registration. As a result, work in connection with deep learning now dominates the BVM. These developments have also contributed to the establishment of medical image processing at the interface between computer science and medicine as one of the key technologies for the digitization of the health system.
In addition to the presentation of current research results, a central aspect of the BVM is primarily the promotion of young scientists from the diverse BVM community, covering not only Germany but also Austria, Switzerland, The Netherland and other European neighbors. The conference serves primarily doctoral students and postdocs, but also students with excellent bachelor and master theses as a platform to present their work, to enter into professional discourse with the community, and to establish networks with specialist colleagues. Despite the many conferences and congresses that are also relevant for medical image processing, the BVM has therefore lost none of its importance and attractiveness and has retained its permanent place in the annual conference rhythm.
Building on this foundation, there are some innovations and changes this year. The BVM 2021 was organized for the first time at the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg (OTH Regensburg, a technical university of applied sciences). After Aachen, Berlin, Erlangen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Lübeck, and Munich, Regensburg is not just a new venue. OTH Regensburg is the first representative of the universities of applied sciences (HAW) to organize the conference, which differs to universities, university hospitals, or research centers like Fraunhofer or Helmholtz. This also considers the further development of the research landscape in Germany, where HAWs increasingly contribute to applied research in addition to their focus on teaching. This development is also reflected in the contributions submitted to the BVM in recent years.
At BVM 2021, which was held in a virtual format for the first time due to the Corona pandemic, an attractive and high-quality program was offered. Fortunately, the number of submissions increased significantly. Out of 97 submissions, 26 presentations, 51 posters and 5 software demonstrations were accepted via an anonymized reviewing process with three reviews each. The three best works have been awarded BVM prizes, selected by a separate committee.
Based on these high-quality submissions, we are able to present another special issue in the International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (IJCARS). Out of the 97 submissions, the ones with the highest scores have been invited to submit an extended version of their paper to be presented in IJCARS. As a result, we are now able to present this special issue with seven excellent articles. Many submissions focus on machine learning in a medical context.
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.
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.
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.
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.