Automatic anatomical classification of esophagogastroduodenoscopy images using deep convolutional neural networks

The use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has dramatically advanced our ability to recognize images with machine learning methods. We aimed to construct a CNN that could recognize the anatomical location of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) images in an appropriate manner. A CNN-based diagnostic program was constructed based on GoogLeNet architecture, and was trained with 27,335 EGD images that were categorized into four major anatomical locations (larynx, esophagus, stomach and duodenum) and three subsequent sub-classifications for stomach images (upper, middle, and lower regions). The performance of the CNN was evaluated in an independent validation set of 17,081 EGD images by drawing receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and calculating the area under the curves (AUCs). ROC curves showed high performance of the trained CNN to classify the anatomical location of EGD images with AUCs of 1.00 for larynx and esophagus images, and 0.99 for stomach and duodenum images. Furthermore, the trained CNN could recognize specific anatomical locations within the stomach, with AUCs of 0.99 for the upper, middle, and lower stomach. In conclusion, the trained CNN showed robust performance in its ability to recognize the anatomical location of EGD images, highlighting its significant potential for future application as a computer-aided EGD diagnostic system.