Computer-aided diagnosis of serrated colorectal lesions using non-magnified white-light endoscopic images

Computer-aided diagnosis systems for polyp characterization are commercially available but cannot recognize subtypes of sessile lesions. This study aimed to develop a computer-aided diagnosis system to characterize polyps using non-magnified white-light endoscopic images.

A total of 2249 non-magnified white-light images from 1030 lesions including 534 tubular adenomas, 225 sessile serrated adenoma/polyps, and 271 hyperplastic polyps in the proximal colon were consecutively extracted from an image library and divided into training and testing datasets (4:1), based on the date of colonoscopy. Using ResNet-50 networks, we developed a classifier (1) to differentiate adenomas from serrated lesions, and another classifier (2) to differentiate sessile serrated adenoma/polyps from hyperplastic polyps. Diagnostic performance was assessed using the testing dataset. The computer-aided diagnosis system generated a probability score for each image, and a probability score for each lesion was calculated as the weighted mean with a log₁₀-transformation. Two experts (E1, E2) read the identical testing dataset with a probability score.

The area under the curve of classifier (1) for adenomas was equivalent to E1 and superior to E2 (classifier 86%, E1 86%, E2 69%; classifier vs. E2, p < 0.001). In contrast, the area under the curve of classifier (2) for sessile serrated adenoma/polyps was inferior to both experts (classifier 55%, E1 68%, E2 79%; classifier vs. E2, p < 0.001).

The classifier (1) developed using white-light images alone compares favorably with experts in differentiating adenomas from serrated lesions. However, the classifier (2) to identify sessile serrated adenoma/polyps is inferior to experts.