Joel En Wei Koh1, Simona De Michele2, Vidya K Sudarshan3, V Jahmunah1, Edward J Ciaccio4, Chui Ping Ooi3, Raj Gururajan5, Rashmi Gururajan6, Shu Lih Oh1, Suzanne K Lewis4, Peter H Green4, Govind Bhagat7, U Rajendra Acharya8. 1. Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore. 2. Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA. 3. School of Science and Technology, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore. 4. Department of Medicine, Celiac Disease Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA. 5. School of Business, University of Southern Queensland Springfield, Australia. 6. Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Queensland, Australia. 7. Department of Medicine, Celiac Disease Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA; Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA. 8. Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore; School of Science and Technology, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore; School of Business, University of Southern Queensland Springfield, Australia; Department of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, Asia University, Taiwan; International Research Organization for Advanced Science and Technology (IROAST) Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan. Electronic address: aru@np.edu.sg.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease occurring in about 1 in 100 people worldwide. Early diagnosis and efficient treatment are crucial in mitigating the complications that are associated with untreated celiac disease, such as intestinal lymphoma and malignancy, and the subsequent high morbidity. The current diagnostic methods using small intestinal biopsy histopathology, endoscopy, and video capsule endoscopy (VCE) involve manual interpretation of photomicrographs or images, which can be time-consuming and difficult, with inter-observer variability. In this paper, a machine learning technique was developed for the automation of biopsy image analysis to detect and classify villous atrophy based on modified Marsh scores. This is one of the first studies to employ conventional machine learning to automate the use of biopsy images for celiac disease detection and classification. METHODS: The Steerable Pyramid Transform (SPT) method was used to obtain sub bands from which various types of entropy and nonlinear features were computed. All extracted features were automatically classified into two-class and multi-class, using six classifiers. RESULTS: An accuracy of 88.89%, was achieved for the classification of two-class villous abnormalities based on analysis of Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained biopsy images. Similarly, an accuracy of 82.92% was achieved for the two-class classification of red-green-blue (RGB) biopsy images. Also, an accuracy of 72% was achieved in the classification of multi-class biopsy images. CONCLUSION: The results obtained are promising, and demonstrate the possibility of automating biopsy image interpretation using machine learning. This can assist pathologists in accelerating the diagnostic process without bias, resulting in greater accuracy, and ultimately, earlier access to treatment.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease occurring in about 1 in 100 people worldwide. Early diagnosis and efficient treatment are crucial in mitigating the complications that are associated with untreated celiac disease, such as intestinal lymphoma and malignancy, and the subsequent high morbidity. The current diagnostic methods using small intestinal biopsy histopathology, endoscopy, and video capsule endoscopy (VCE) involve manual interpretation of photomicrographs or images, which can be time-consuming and difficult, with inter-observer variability. In this paper, a machine learning technique was developed for the automation of biopsy image analysis to detect and classify villous atrophy based on modified Marsh scores. This is one of the first studies to employ conventional machine learning to automate the use of biopsy images for celiac disease detection and classification. METHODS: The Steerable Pyramid Transform (SPT) method was used to obtain sub bands from which various types of entropy and nonlinear features were computed. All extracted features were automatically classified into two-class and multi-class, using six classifiers. RESULTS: An accuracy of 88.89%, was achieved for the classification of two-class villous abnormalities based on analysis of Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained biopsy images. Similarly, an accuracy of 82.92% was achieved for the two-class classification of red-green-blue (RGB) biopsy images. Also, an accuracy of 72% was achieved in the classification of multi-class biopsy images. CONCLUSION: The results obtained are promising, and demonstrate the possibility of automating biopsy image interpretation using machine learning. This can assist pathologists in accelerating the diagnostic process without bias, resulting in greater accuracy, and ultimately, earlier access to treatment.