Development and validation of artificial neural networks model for detection of Barrett?s neoplasia: a multicenter pragmatic nonrandomized trial (with video)

Background and aims: The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate a computer-aided detection (CAD) system for the detection and localization of Barrett's neoplasia and assess its performance compared with that of general endoscopists in a statistically powered multicenter study by using real-time video sequences.Methods: In phase 1, the hybrid visual geometry group 16-SegNet model was trained by the use of 75,198 images and videos (96 patients) of neoplastic and 1,014,973 images and videos (65 patients) of nonneoplastic Barrett's esophagus. In phase 2, image-based validation was performed on a separate dataset of 107 images (20 patients) of neoplastic and 364 images (14 patients) of nonneoplastic Barrett's esophagus. In phase 3 (video-based external validation) we designed a real-time video-based study with 32 videos (32 patients) of neoplastic and 43 videos (43 patients) of nonneoplastic Bar-rett's esophagus from 4 European centers to compare the performance of the CAD model with that of 6 nonexpert endo-scopists. The primary endpoint was the sensitivity of CAD diagnosis of Barrett's neoplasia. Results: In phase 2, CAD detected Barrett's neoplasia with sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 95.3%, 94.5%, and 94.7%, respectively. In phase 3, the CAD system detected Barrett's neoplasia with sensitivity, specificity, nega-tive predictive value, and accuracy of 93.8%, 90.7%, 95.1%, and 92.0%, respectively, compared with the endoscop-ists' performance of 63.5%, 77.9%, 74.2%, and 71.8%, respectively (P < .05 in all parameters). The CAD system localized neoplastic lesions with accuracy, mean precision, and mean intersection over union of 100%, 0.62, and 0.54, respectively, when compared with at least 1 of the expert markings. The processing speed of the CAD detection and localization were 5 ms/image and 33 ms/image, respectively. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study describing external (multicenter) validation of AI algorithms for the detection of Barrett's neoplasia on real-time endoscopic videos. The CAD system in this study significantly outperformed nonexpert endoscopists on real-time video-based assessment, achieving >90% sensitivity for neoplasia detection. This result needs to be validated during real-time endoscopic assessment. (Gastrointest Endosc 2023;97:422-34.)

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop and validate a computer-aided detection system for Barrett's neoplasia and compare its performance with that of general endoscopists. The results showed that the CAD system had a higher sensitivity in detecting Barrett's neoplasia compared to the endoscopists.