System-wide identification of novel de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 in gastric cancer metastasis through multi-omics screening.

OBJECTIVE: Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 10 (USP10), a typical de-ubiquitinase, has been found to play a double-edged role in human cancers. Previously, we reported that the expression of USP10 was negatively correlated with the depth of gastric wall invasion, lymph node metastasis, and prognosis in gastric cancer (GC) patients. However, it remains unclear whether USP10 can regulate the metastasis of GC cells through its de-ubiquitination function. METHODS: In this study, proteome, ubiquitinome, and transcriptome analyses were conducted to comprehensively identify novel de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 in GC cells. Subsequently, a series of validation experiments, including in vitro cell culture studies, in vivo metastatic tumor models, and clinical sample analyses, were performed to elucidate the regulatory mechanism of USP10 and its de-ubiquitination targets in GC metastasis. RESULTS: After overexpression of USP10 in GC cells, 146 proteins, 489 ubiquitin sites, and 61 mRNAs exhibited differential expression. By integrating the results of multi-omics, we ultimately screened 9 potential substrates of USP10, including TNFRSF10B, SLC2A3, CD44, CSTF2, RPS27, TPD52, GPS1, RNF185, and MED16. Among them, TNFRSF10B was further verified as a direct de-ubiquitination target for USP10 by Co-IP and protein stabilization assays. The dysregulation of USP10 or TNFRSF10B affected the migration and invasion of GC cells in vitro and in vivo models. Molecular mechanism studies showed that USP10 inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process by increasing the stability of TNFRSF10B protein, thereby regulating the migration and invasion of GC cells. Finally, the retrospective clinical sample studies demonstrated that the downregulation of TNFRSF10B expression was associated with poor survival among 4 of 7 GC cohorts, and the expression of TNFRSF10B protein was significantly negatively correlated with the incidence of distant metastasis, diffuse type, and poorly cohesive carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our study established a high-throughput strategy for screening de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 and further confirmed that inhibiting the ubiquitination of TNFRSF10B might be a promising therapeutic strategy for GC metastasis.

The effect of incorporating domain knowledge with deep learning in identifying benign and malignant gastric whitish lesions: A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Early whitish gastric neoplasms can be easily misdiagnosed; differential diagnosis of gastric whitish lesions remains a challenge. We aim to build a deep learning (DL) model to diagnose whitish gastric neoplasms and explore the effect of adding domain knowledge in model construction. METHODS: We collected 4558 images from two institutions to train and test models. We first developed two sole DL models (1 and 2) using supervised and semi-supervised algorithms. Then we selected diagnosis-related features through literature research and developed feature-extraction models to determine features including boundary, surface, roundness, depression, and location. Then predictions of the five feature-extraction models and sole DL model were combined and inputted into seven machine-learning (ML) based fitting-diagnosis models. The optimal model was selected as ENDOANGEL-WD (whitish-diagnosis) and compared with endoscopists. RESULTS: Sole DL 2 had higher sensitivity (83.12% vs 68.67%, Bonferroni adjusted P = 0.024) than sole DL 1. Adding domain knowledge, the decision tree performed best among the seven ML models, achieving higher specificity than DL 1 (84.38% vs 72.27%, Bonferroni adjusted P < 0.05) and higher accuracy than DL 2 (80.47%, Bonferroni adjusted P < 0.001) and was selected as ENDOANGEL-WD. ENDOANGEL-WD showed better accuracy compared with 10 endoscopists (75.70%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We developed a novel system ENDOANGEL-WD combining domain knowledge and traditional DL to detect gastric whitish neoplasms. Adding domain knowledge improved the performance of traditional DL, which provided a novel solution for establishing diagnostic models for other rare diseases potentially.

Effect of a deep learning-based automatic upper GI endoscopic reporting system: a randomized crossover study (with video).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: EGD is essential for GI disorders, and reports are pivotal to facilitating postprocedure diagnosis and treatment. Manual report generation lacks sufficient quality and is labor intensive. We reported and validated an artificial intelligence-based endoscopy automatic reporting system (AI-EARS). METHODS: The AI-EARS was designed for automatic report generation, including real-time image capturing, diagnosis, and textual description. It was developed using multicenter datasets from 8 hospitals in China, including 252,111 images for training, 62,706 images, and 950 videos for testing. Twelve endoscopists and 44 endoscopy procedures were consecutively enrolled to evaluate the effect of the AI-EARS in a multireader, multicase, crossover study. The precision and completeness of the reports were compared between endoscopists using the AI-EARS and conventional reporting systems. RESULTS: In video validation, the AI-EARS achieved completeness of 98.59% and 99.69% for esophageal and gastric abnormality records, respectively, accuracies of 87.99% and 88.85% for esophageal and gastric lesion location records, and 73.14% and 85.24% for diagnosis. Compared with the conventional reporting systems, the AI-EARS achieved greater completeness (79.03% vs 51.86%, P < .001) and accuracy (64.47% vs 42.81%, P < .001) of the textual description and completeness of the photo-documents of landmarks (92.23% vs 73.69%, P < .001). The mean reporting time for an individual lesion was significantly reduced (80.13 ± 16.12 seconds vs 46.47 ± 11.68 seconds, P < .001) after the AI-EARS assistance. CONCLUSIONS: The AI-EARS showed its efficacy in improving the accuracy and completeness of EGD reports. It might facilitate the generation of complete endoscopy reports and postendoscopy patient management. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT05479253.).

A deep-learning based system using multi-modal data for diagnosing gastric neoplasms in real-time (with video).

BACKGROUND: White light (WL) and weak-magnifying (WM) endoscopy are both important methods for diagnosing gastric neoplasms. This study constructed a deep-learning system named ENDOANGEL-MM (multi-modal) aimed at real-time diagnosing gastric neoplasms using WL and WM data. METHODS: WL and WM images of a same lesion were combined into image-pairs. A total of 4201 images, 7436 image-pairs, and 162 videos were used for model construction and validation. Models 1-5 including two single-modal models (WL, WM) and three multi-modal models (data fusion on task-level, feature-level, and input-level) were constructed. The models were tested on three levels including images, videos, and prospective patients. The best model was selected for constructing ENDOANGEL-MM. We compared the performance between the models and endoscopists and conducted a diagnostic study to explore the ENDOANGEL-MM's assistance ability. RESULTS: Model 4 (ENDOANGEL-MM) showed the best performance among five models. Model 2 performed better in single-modal models. The accuracy of ENDOANGEL-MM was higher than that of Model 2 in still images, real-time videos, and prospective patients. (86.54 vs 78.85%, P = 0.134; 90.00 vs 85.00%, P = 0.179; 93.55 vs 70.97%, P < 0.001). Model 2 and ENDOANGEL-MM outperformed endoscopists on WM data (85.00 vs 71.67%, P = 0.002) and multi-modal data (90.00 vs 76.17%, P = 0.002), significantly. With the assistance of ENDOANGEL-MM, the accuracy of non-experts improved significantly (85.75 vs 70.75%, P = 0.020), and performed no significant difference from experts (85.75 vs 89.00%, P = 0.159). CONCLUSIONS: The multi-modal model constructed by feature-level fusion showed the best performance. ENDOANGEL-MM identified gastric neoplasms with good accuracy and has a potential role in real-clinic.

Development and validation of an artificial intelligence-based system for predicting colorectal cancer invasion depth using multi-modal data.

OBJECTIVES: Accurate endoscopic optical prediction of the depth of cancer invasion is critical for guiding an optimal treatment approach of large sessile colorectal polyps but was hindered by insufficient endoscopists expertise and inter-observer variability. We aimed to construct a clinically applicable artificial intelligence (AI) system for the identification of presence of cancer invasion in large sessile colorectal polyps. METHODS: A deep learning-based colorectal cancer invasion calculation (CCIC) system was constructed. Multi-modal data including clinical information, white light (WL) and image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE) were included for training. The system was trained using 339 lesions and tested on 198 lesions across three hospitals. Man-machine contest, reader study and video validation were further conducted to evaluate the performance of CCIC. RESULTS: The overall accuracy of CCIC system using image and video validation was 90.4% and 89.7%, respectively. In comparison with 14 endoscopists, the accuracy of CCIC was comparable with expert endoscopists but superior to all the participating senior and junior endoscopists in both image and video validation set. With CCIC augmentation, the average accuracy of junior endoscopists improved significantly from 75.4% to 85.3% (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: This deep learning-based CCIC system may play an important role in predicting the depth of cancer invasion in colorectal polyps, thus determining treatment strategies for these large sessile colorectal polyps.

Real-time automated diagnosis of colorectal cancer invasion depth using a deep learning model with multimodal data (with video).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The optical diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) invasion depth with white light (WL) and image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE) remains challenging. We aimed to construct and validate a 2-modal deep learning-based system, incorporated with both WL and IEE images (named Endo-CRC) in estimating the invasion depth of CRC. METHODS: Samples were retrospectively obtained from 3 hospitals in China. We combined WL and IEE images into image pairs. Altogether, 337,278 image pairs from 268 noninvasive and superficial CRC and 181,934 image pairs from 82 deep CRC were used for training. A total of 296,644 and 4528 image pairs were used for internal and external tests and for comparison with endoscopists. Thirty-five videos were used for evaluating the real-time performance of the Endo-CRC system. Two deep learning models, solely using either WL (model W) or IEE images (model I), were constructed to compare with Endo-CRC. RESULTS: The accuracies of Endo-CRC in internal image tests with and without advanced CRC were 91.61% and 93.78%, respectively, and 88.65% in the external test, which did not include advanced CRC. In an endoscopist-machine competition, Endo-CRC achieved an expert comparable accuracy of 88.11% and the highest sensitivity compared with all endoscopists. In a video test, Endo-CRC achieved an accuracy of 100.00%. Compared with model W and model I, Endo-CRC had a higher accuracy (per image pair: 91.61% vs 88.27% compared with model I and 91.61% vs 81.32% compared with model W). CONCLUSIONS: The Endo-CRC system has great potential for assisting in CRC invasion depth diagnosis and may be well applied in clinical practice.

SSRP1 promotes colorectal cancer progression and is negatively regulated by miR-28-5p.

In this study, microarray data analysis, real-time quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression levels of SSRP1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue and in corresponding normal tissue. The association between structure-specific recognition protein 1 (SSRP1) expression and patient prognosis was examined by Kaplan-Meier analysis. SSRP1 was knocked down and overexpressed in CRC cell lines, and its effects on proliferation, cell cycling, migration, invasion, cellular energy metabolism, apoptosis, chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity and cell phenotype-related molecules were assessed. The growth of xenograft tumours in nude mice was also assessed. MiRNAs that potentially targeted SSRP1 were determined by bioinformatic analysis, Western blotting and luciferase reporter assays. We showed that SSRP1 mRNA levels were significantly increased in CRC tissue. We also confirmed that this upregulation was related to the terminal tumour stage in CRC patients, and high expression levels of SSRP1 predicted shorter disease-free survival and faster relapse. We also found that SSRP1 modulated proliferation, metastasis, cellular energy metabolism and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in CRC. Furthermore, SSRP1 induced apoptosis and SSRP1 knockdown augmented the sensitivity of CRC cells to 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin. Moreover, we explored the molecular mechanisms accounting for the dysregulation of SSRP1 in CRC and identified microRNA-28-5p (miR-28-5p) as a direct upstream regulator of SSRP1. We concluded that SSRP1 promotes CRC progression and is negatively regulated by miR-28-5p.

A deep neural network improves endoscopic detection of early gastric cancer without blind spots.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is the third most lethal malignancy worldwide. A novel deep convolution neural network (DCNN) to perform visual tasks has been recently developed. The aim of this study was to build a system using the DCNN to detect early gastric cancer (EGC) without blind spots during esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). METHODS: 3170 gastric cancer and 5981 benign images were collected to train the DCNN to detect EGC. A total of 24549 images from different parts of stomach were collected to train the DCNN to monitor blind spots. Class activation maps were developed to automatically cover suspicious cancerous regions. A grid model for the stomach was used to indicate the existence of blind spots in unprocessed EGD videos. RESULTS: The DCNN identified EGC from non-malignancy with an accuracy of 92.5 %, a sensitivity of 94.0 %, a specificity of 91.0 %, a positive predictive value of 91.3 %, and a negative predictive value of 93.8 %, outperforming all levels of endoscopists. In the task of classifying gastric locations into 10 or 26 parts, the DCNN achieved an accuracy of 90 % or 65.9 %, on a par with the performance of experts. In real-time unprocessed EGD videos, the DCNN achieved automated performance for detecting EGC and monitoring blind spots. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a system based on a DCNN to accurately detect EGC and recognize gastric locations better than endoscopists, and proactively track suspicious cancerous lesions and monitor blind spots during EGD.

SSRP1 Contributes to the Malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Is Negatively Regulated by miR-497.

The aim of this study is to clarify the clinical implication and functional role of structure specific recognition protein 1 (SSRP1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and explore the underlying mechanism of aberrant high expression of SSRP1 in cancers. In the present investigation, we validated that SSRP1 was upregulated in HCC samples. We also demonstrated that its upregulation was associated with several clinicopathologic features such as higher serum AFP level, larger tumor size, and higher T stage of HCC patients; and its high expression indicated shorter overall survival and faster recurrence. To investigate the role of SSRP1 in HCC progression, both loss- and gain-function models were established. We demonstrated that SSPR1 modulated both proliferation and metastasis of HCC cells in vitro and vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrated that SSRP1-modulated apoptosis process and its knockdown increased the sensitivity of HCC cells to doxorubicin, 5-Fluorouracil, and cisplatin. We also identified microRNA-497 (miR-497) as a posttranscriptional regulator of SSRP1. Ectopic expression of miR-497 inhibited 3'-untranslated-region-coupled luciferase activity and suppressed endogenous SSRP1 expression at both messenger RNA and protein levels. For the first time, we proved that SSRP1 upregulation contributed to HCC development and the tumor-suppressive miR-497 served as its negative regulator.

Selenium intake in relation to all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A nationwide study in nutrition.

AIMS: Limited evidence exists regarding the association of selenium with risk of death in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study was designed to investigate the relationship between dietary selenium intake with mortality in a nationally representative sample of United States adults with NAFLD. METHODS: Dietary selenium intake was assessed in 2274 NAFLD adults younger than 60 years of age from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III through a 24-hour dietary recall. NAFLD was diagnosed by liver ultrasound after excluding liver disease due to other causes. Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to assess the effect of dietary selenium intake on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among individuals with NAFLD. RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 27.4 years, 577 deaths occurred in individuals with NAFLD, including 152 cardiovascular deaths. The U-shaped associations were discovered between selenium intake with all-cause (Pnolinear = 0.008) and cardiovascular mortality (Pnolinear < 0.001) in adults with NAFLD after multivariate adjustment, with the lowest risk around selenium intake of 121.7 or 125.9 µg/day, respectively. Selenium intake in the range of 104.1-142.4 µg/day was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality and, otherwise, an increased risk. Selenium intake in the range of 104.1-150.6 µg/day was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular death and, otherwise, an increased risk. CONCLUSIONS: Both high and low selenium intake increased the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death in adults younger than 60 years of age with NAFLD, which may help guide dietary adjustments and improve outcomes in adults with NAFLD.

An artificial intelligence system for chronic atrophic gastritis diagnosis and risk stratification under white light endoscopy.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The diagnosis and stratification of gastric atrophy (GA) predict patients' gastric cancer progression risk and determine endoscopy surveillance interval. We aimed to construct an artificial intelligence (AI) system for GA endoscopic identification and risk stratification based on the Kimura-Takemoto classification. METHODS: We constructed the system using two trained models and verified its performance. First, we retrospectively collected 869 images and 119 videos to compare its performance with that of endoscopists in identifying GA. Then, we included original image cases of 102 patients to validate the system for stratifying GA and comparing it with endoscopists with different experiences. RESULTS: The sensitivity of model 1 was higher than that of endoscopists (92.72% vs. 76.85 %) at image level and also higher than that of experts (94.87% vs. 85.90 %) at video level. The system outperformed experts in stratifying GA (overall accuracy: 81.37 %, 73.04 %, p = 0.045). The accuracy of this system in classifying non-GA, mild GA, moderate GA, and severe GA was 80.00 %, 77.42 %, 83.33 %, and 85.71 %, comparable to that of experts and better than that of seniors and novices. CONCLUSIONS: We established an expert-level system for GA endoscopic identification and risk stratification. It has great potential for endoscopic assessment and surveillance determinations.

The efficient of application of a fine magnetic traction system simplifies colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection: A porcine study.

BACKGROUND: Sometimes it is difficult to maintain good visualization of the submucosal layer during colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a novel traction method, the fine magnetic traction system (FMTS), in colorectal ESD. METHODS: ESD was performed 10, 15, or 30 cm from the anus in the colorectums of 10 Bama miniature pigs with or without FMTS. The circumcision and dissection per unit time (cm2/min), en bloc resection, perforation and bleeding rates, size and integrity of the specimen and submucosal injection times were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 60 ESD procedures were performed with or without FMTS assistance. The en bloc resection rates were 100% at 10 and 15 cm from the anus in both the control group (conventional ESD) and the FMTS group. However, at 30 cm from the anus, these rates were only 10% and 70% (p = 0.006). The resection speeds (control vs. FMTS) at the 10, 15, and 30 cm points were 0.35 ± 0.07 cm2/min vs. 0.39 ± 0.19 cm2/min (p = 0.56), 0.30 ± 0.09 cm2/min vs. 0.38 ± 0.02 cm2/min (p = 0.04), and 0.11 cm2/min vs. 0.26 ± 0.10 cm2/min, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The FMTS provides effective counter-traction and efficiently reduces the risks and difficulties of difficult colonic ESD in the porcine model.

An explainable artificial intelligence system for diagnosing Helicobacter Pylori infection under endoscopy: a case-control study.

Background: Changes in gastric mucosa caused by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection affect the observation of early gastric cancer under endoscopy. Although previous researches reported that computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems have great potential in the diagnosis of H. pylori infection, their explainability remains a challenge. Objective: We aim to develop an explainable artificial intelligence system for diagnosing H. pylori infection (EADHI) and giving diagnostic basis under endoscopy. Design: A case-control study. Methods: We retrospectively obtained 47,239 images from 1826 patients between 1 June 2020 and 31 July 2021 at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University for the development of EADHI. EADHI was developed based on feature extraction combining ResNet-50 and long short-term memory networks. Nine endoscopic features were used for H. pylori infection. EADHI's performance was evaluated and compared to that of endoscopists. An external test was conducted in Wenzhou Central Hospital to evaluate its robustness. A gradient-boosting decision tree model was used to examine the contributions of different mucosal features for diagnosing H. pylori infection. Results: The system extracted mucosal features for diagnosing H. pylori infection with an overall accuracy of 78.3% [95% confidence interval (CI): 76.2-80.3]. The accuracy of EADHI for diagnosing H. pylori infection (91.1%, 95% CI: 85.7-94.6) was significantly higher than that of endoscopists (by 15.5%, 95% CI: 9.7-21.3) in internal test. And it showed a good accuracy of 91.9% (95% CI: 85.6-95.7) in external test. Mucosal edema was the most important diagnostic feature for H. pylori positive, while regular arrangement of collecting venules was the most important H. pylori negative feature. Conclusion: The EADHI discerns H. pylori gastritis with high accuracy and good explainability, which may improve the trust and acceptability of endoscopists on CADs. Plain language summary: An explainable AI system for Helicobacter pylori with good diagnostic performance Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the main risk factor for gastric cancer (GC), and changes in gastric mucosa caused by H. pylori infection affect the observation of early GC under endoscopy. Therefore, it is necessary to identify H. pylori infection under endoscopy. Although previous research showed that computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems have great potential in H. pylori infection diagnosis, their generalization and explainability are still a challenge. Herein, we constructed an explainable artificial intelligence system for diagnosing H. pylori infection (EADHI) using images by case. In this study, we integrated ResNet-50 and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks into the system. Among them, ResNet50 is used for feature extraction, LSTM is used to classify H. pylori infection status based on these features. Furthermore, we added the information of mucosal features in each case when training the system so that EADHI could identify and output which mucosal features are contained in a case. In our study, EADHI achieved good diagnostic performance with an accuracy of 91.1% [95% confidence interval (CI): 85.7-94.6], which was significantly higher than that of endoscopists (by 15.5%, 95% CI: 9.7-21.3%) in internal test. In addition, it showed a good diagnostic accuracy of 91.9% (95% CI: 85.6-95.7) in external tests. The EADHI discerns H. pylori gastritis with high accuracy and good explainability, which may improve the trust and acceptability of endoscopists on CADs. However, we only used data from a single center to develop EADHI, and it was not effective in identifying past H. pylori infection. Future, multicenter, prospective studies are needed to demonstrate the clinical applicability of CADs.

LITAF Promotes Atherosclerotic Plaque Formation by Stimulating the NF-κB Inflammatory Pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-α factor (LITAF) protein is a newly discovered inflammatory protein. This study aims to study the role of LITAF in the formation of atherosclerosis. METHODS: A total of 10 C57BL/6J mice and 10 C57BL/6J mice with knockout of LITAF gene (C57BL/6J-LITAF-) were divided into two groups: the control group and the LITAF-/- group. The animals were accommodated for 16 weeks and then euthanized with their hearts and aortas isolated thereafter. Next, the roots of the mouse aorta were cryosectioned and stained with Oil Red O staining and immunohistochemical staining (CD68, α-SMA, and Masson), respectively. The area of Oil Red O staining and the proportion of positive expression after immunohistochemical staining were then compared between the control and LITAF-/- groups. At the same time, the blood of mice was collected for the extraction of proteins and RNA. The proteins and RNA were used to detect the expression of major molecules of the NF-κB inflammatory pathway in mice in the control group and the LITAF-/- group by Western blotting and RT-PCR. RESULTS: Oil Red O staining of the aortic root sections of the mice in each group revealed that the area of atherosclerotic plaques in the LITAF-/- group was substantially lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). Moreover, immunohistochemical staining determined that the expression level of α-SMA and CD68 in the LITAF-/- group was significantly lower than that in the control group, whereas the results were reversed following Masson staining (P<0.05). The expression levels of P65 and caspase 3 were significantly lower in the LITAF-/- group than in the control group (P<0.05), whereas the expression level of IκB was higher in the LITAF-/- group. CONCLUSION: LITAF might participate in the formation of atherosclerotic plaque through the NF-κB pathway and play a promoting role in the formation of atherosclerosis.

Human-Like Artificial Intelligent System for Predicting Invasion Depth of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using Magnifying Narrow-Band Imaging Endoscopy: A Retrospective Multicenter Study.

INTRODUCTION: Endoscopic evaluation is crucial for predicting the invasion depth of esophagus squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and selecting appropriate treatment strategies. Our study aimed to develop and validate an interpretable artificial intelligence-based invasion depth prediction system (AI-IDPS) for ESCC. METHODS: We reviewed the PubMed for eligible studies and collected potential visual feature indices associated with invasion depth. Multicenter data comprising 5,119 narrow-band imaging magnifying endoscopy images from 581 patients with ESCC were collected from 4 hospitals between April 2016 and November 2021. Thirteen models for feature extraction and 1 model for feature fitting were developed for AI-IDPS. The efficiency of AI-IDPS was evaluated on 196 images and 33 consecutively collected videos and compared with a pure deep learning model and performance of endoscopists. A crossover study and a questionnaire survey were conducted to investigate the system's impact on endoscopists' understanding of the AI predictions. RESULTS: AI-IDPS demonstrated the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 85.7%, 86.3%, and 86.2% in image validation and 87.5%, 84%, and 84.9% in consecutively collected videos, respectively, for differentiating SM2-3 lesions. The pure deep learning model showed significantly lower sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (83.7%, 52.1% and 60.0%, respectively). The endoscopists had significantly improved accuracy (from 79.7% to 84.9% on average, P = 0.03) and comparable sensitivity (from 37.5% to 55.4% on average, P = 0.27) and specificity (from 93.1% to 94.3% on average, P = 0.75) after AI-IDPS assistance. DISCUSSION: Based on domain knowledge, we developed an interpretable system for predicting ESCC invasion depth. The anthropopathic approach demonstrates the potential to outperform deep learning architecture in practice.

Explainable artificial intelligence incorporated with domain knowledge diagnosing early gastric neoplasms under white light endoscopy.

White light endoscopy is the most pivotal tool for detecting early gastric neoplasms. Previous artificial intelligence (AI) systems were primarily unexplainable, affecting their clinical credibility and acceptability. We aimed to develop an explainable AI named ENDOANGEL-ED (explainable diagnosis) to solve this problem. A total of 4482 images and 296 videos with focal lesions from 3279 patients from eight hospitals were used for training, validating, and testing ENDOANGEL-ED. A traditional sole deep learning (DL) model was trained using the same dataset. The performance of ENDOANGEL-ED and sole DL was evaluated on six levels: internal and external images, internal and external videos, consecutive videos, and man-machine comparison with 77 endoscopists in videos. Furthermore, a multi-reader, multi-case study was conducted to evaluate the ENDOANGEL-ED's effectiveness. A scale was used to compare the overall acceptance of endoscopists to traditional and explainable AI systems. The ENDOANGEL-ED showed high performance in the image and video tests. In man-machine comparison, the accuracy of ENDOANGEL-ED was significantly higher than that of all endoscopists in internal (81.10% vs. 70.61%, p < 0.001) and external videos (88.24% vs. 78.49%, p < 0.001). With ENDOANGEL-ED's assistance, the accuracy of endoscopists significantly improved (70.61% vs. 79.63%, p < 0.001). Compared with the traditional AI, the explainable AI increased the endoscopists' trust and acceptance (4.42 vs. 3.74, p < 0.001; 4.52 vs. 4.00, p < 0.001). In conclusion, we developed a real-time explainable AI that showed high performance, higher clinical credibility, and acceptance than traditional DL models and greatly improved the diagnostic ability of endoscopists.

Development and Evaluation of a Surveillance System for Follow-Up After Colorectal Polypectomy.

Importance: The adherence of physicians and patients to published colorectal postpolypectomy surveillance guidelines varies greatly, and patient follow-up is critical but time consuming. Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of an automatic surveillance (AS) system in identifying patients after polypectomy, assigning surveillance intervals for different risks of patients, and proactively following up with patients on time. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this diagnostic/prognostic study, endoscopic and pathological reports of 47 544 patients undergoing colonoscopy at 3 hospitals between January 1, 2017, and June 30, 2022, were collected to develop an AS system based on natural language processing. The performance of the AS system was fully evaluated in internal and external tests according to 5 guidelines worldwide and compared with that of physicians. A multireader, multicase (MRMC) trial was conducted to evaluate use of the AS system and physician guideline adherence, and prospective data were collected to evaluate the success rate in contacting patients and the association with reduced human workload. Data analysis was conducted from July to September 2022. Exposures: Assistance of the AS system. Main Outcomes and Measures: The accuracy of the system in identifying patients after polypectomy, stratifying patient risk levels, and assigning surveillance intervals in internal (Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University), external 1 (Wenzhou Central Hospital), and external 2 (The First People's Hospital of Yichang) test sets; the accuracy of physicians and their time burden with and without system assistance; and the rate of successfully informed patients of the system were evaluated. Results: Test sets for 16 106 patients undergoing colonoscopy (mean [SD] age, 51.90 [13.40] years; 7690 females [47.75%]) were evaluated. In internal, external 1, and external 2 test sets, the system had an overall accuracy of 99.91% (95% CI, 99.83%-99.95%), 99.54% (95% CI, 99.30%-99.70%), and 99.77% (95% CI, 99.41%-99.91%), respectively, for identifying types of patients and achieved an overall accuracy of at least 99.30% (95% CI, 98.67%-99.63%) in the internal test set, 98.89% (95% CI, 98.33%-99.27%) in external test set 1, and 98.56% (95% CI, 95.86%-99.51%) in external test set 2 for stratifying patient risk levels and assigning surveillance intervals according to 5 guidelines. The system was associated with increased mean (SD) accuracy among physicians vs no AS system in 105 patients (98.67% [1.28%] vs 78.10% [18.01%]; P = .04) in the MRMC trial. In a prospective trial, the AS system successfully informed 82 of 88 patients (93.18%) and was associated with reduced burden of follow-up time vs no AS system (0 vs 2.86 h). Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that an AS system was associated with improved adherence to guidelines among physicians and reduced workload among physicians and nurses.

Clinical Effect of Renal Arterial Sympathetic Radiofrequency Ablation on Secondary Hypertension.

Sympathetic hyperactivity is one of the main mechanisms of secondary hypertension. Reducing renal sympathetic activity through surgery can effectively reduce blood pressure. Many cases have shown that renal denervation (RDN) can selectively block renal artery sympathetic nerve activity to control refractory hypertension. This surgery is a minimally invasive surgery, and the risk of surgery-related adverse events is significantly reduced compared with surgery. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy of radiofrequency ablation of renal artery sympathetic nerve in the treatment of secondary hypertension. Eight patients with secondary hypertension diagnosed by the cardiovascular department of our hospital and treated with RDN were followed up for 3-18 months, of which 5 cases were followed up for more than 12 months and 8 cases were followed up for more than 3 months. Eight patients were treated with radiofrequency ablation of renal artery catheter. The parameters such as preoperative blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs, organ function, intraoperative ablation resistance, power, time, and temperature were determined. The related changes of blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs, and visceral function and the occurrence of side effects at 1 week and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after operation were related to the operation. In conclusion, RDN has a significant clinical effect in the treatment of refractory hypertension, with stable postoperative blood pressure drop, reduced drug dosage, and less side effects.

Erratum: Fusobacterium nucleatum Promotes Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer by Activating Autophagy Signaling via the Upregulation of CARD3 Expression: Erratum.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/thno.38870.].

A deep learning and natural language processing-based system for automatic identification and surveillance of high-risk patients undergoing upper endoscopy: A multicenter study.

Background: Timely identification and regular surveillance of patients at high risk are crucial for early diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal cancer. However, traditional manual surveillance method is time-consuming, and current surveillance rate is below 50%. Here, we aimed to develop a surveillance system named ENDOANGEL-AS (automatic surveillance) for automatic identification and surveillance of high-risk patients. Methods: 7874 patients from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between May 1 and July 31, 2021 were used as the training set, 6762 patients between August 1 and October 31, 2021 as the internal test set, and 7570 patients from two other hospitals between August 1 and October 31, 2021 as the external test sets. We first extracted descriptions of abnormalities from endoscopic and pathological reports based on natural language processing techniques to identify individuals. Then patients were classified at nine risk levels according to endoscopic and pathological findings, and a deep learning model was trained to identify demarcation line (DL) in gastric low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN) using 1561 white-light still images for risk stratification of gastric LGIN. Finally, patients undergoing upper endoscopy were classified and assigned one of ten surveillance intervals according to guidelines. The performance of ENDOANGEL-AS was evaluated and compared with physicians. Findings: Patient identification module achieved an accuracy of 100% and 99.91% in internal and external test sets, respectively. Risk level classification module achieved an accuracy of 100% and 99.85% in the internal and external test sets, respectively. DL identification module achieved an accuracy of 87.88%. ENDOANGEL-AS on surveillance interval assignment achieved an accuracy of 99.23% and 99.67% in internal and external test sets, respectively. ENDOANGEL-AS had significantly higher accuracy compared with physicians (99.00% vs 38.87%, p < 0.001). The accuracy (63.67%, p < 0.001) of endoscopists with the assistance of ENDOANGEL-AS was significantly improved. Interpretation: We established a surveillance system that can automatically identify patients and assign surveillance intervals with high accuracy and good transferability. Funding: This work was partly supported by a grant from the Hubei Province Major Science and Technology Innovation Project (2018-916-000-008) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042021kf0084).