Will Transformers change gastrointestinal endoscopic image analysis? A comparative analysis between CNNs and Transformers, in terms of performance, robustness and generalization.

Gastrointestinal endoscopic image analysis presents significant challenges, such as considerable variations in quality due to the challenging in-body imaging environment, the often-subtle nature of abnormalities with low interobserver agreement, and the need for real-time processing. These challenges pose strong requirements on the performance, generalization, robustness and complexity of deep learning-based techniques in such safety-critical applications. While Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been the go-to architecture for endoscopic image analysis, recent successes of the Transformer architecture in computer vision raise the possibility to update this conclusion.

Computer-aided diagnosis improves characterization of Barrett's neoplasia by general endoscopists (with video).

Background And Aims: Characterization of visible abnormalities in patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE) can be challenging, especially for inexperienced endoscopists. This results in suboptimal diagnostic accuracy and poor interobserver agreement. Computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) systems may assist endoscopists.

The use of a real-time computer-aided detection system for visible lesions in the Barrett's esophagus during live endoscopic procedures: a pilot study (with video).

Background And Aims: This pilot study evaluated the performance of a recently developed computer-aided detection (CADe) system for Barrett's neoplasia during live endoscopic procedures.

Methods: Fifteen patients with a visible lesion and 15 without were included in this study. A CAD-assisted workflow was used that included a slow pullback video recording of the entire Barrett's segment with live CADe assistance, followed by CADe-assisted level-based video recordings every 2 cm of the Barrett's segment.