Antral contraction rate estimation from dynamic antral scintigraphy using Hilbert-Huang transform.

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Medical Imaging Analysis
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Dynamic antral scintigraphy (DAS) is used to assess gastric motility.
• Conventional Fourier transform (FT) analysis of DAS data has limitations in capturing non-stationary gastric antral contraction rate (ACR) properties.
• Accurate ACR measurement is crucial for diagnosing gastrointestinal motility disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) for estimating ACR from DAS data.
• To compare the performance of HHT against the conventional FT method in ACR analysis.
• To explore the potential of HHT-enhanced DAS for noninvasive gastrointestinal disease diagnosis.

Main Methods:

• Time activity curves were extracted from DAS data of 18 healthy volunteers.
• Both FT and HHT analyses were applied to the extracted time activity curves.
• Key statistical metrics including mean, standard deviation (SD), and root mean square error (RMSE) were compared between the two methods.

Main Results:

• The HHT method demonstrated significantly smaller SD (p<0.00001) and RMSE (0.72 cpm vs. 1.59 cpm) compared to FT.
• HHT yielded a substantially lower relative SD for ACR (13.3% vs. 53.7%) and frequency values.
• HHT analysis proved more robust in estimating ACR from non-stationary DAS signals.

Conclusions:

• The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) significantly outperforms the conventional Fourier transform (FT) for ACR estimation in dynamic antral scintigraphy (DAS).
• HHT's ability to handle non-stationary data improves the accuracy and reliability of ACR measurements.
• This advanced analytical approach holds promise for developing effective noninvasive diagnostic tools for gastrointestinal tract diseases.