Blog Archive

Αλέξανδρος Γ. Σφακιανάκης

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Optical Biopsy: Automated Classification of Airway Endoscopic Findings Using a Convolutional Neural Network

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Objectives/Hypothesis

Create an autonomous computational system to classify endoscopy findings.

Study Design

Computational analysis of vocal fold images at an academic, tertiary-care laryngology practice.

Methods

A series of normal and abnormal vocal fold images were obtained from the image database of an academic tertiary care laryngology practice. The benign images included normals, nodules, papilloma, polyps, and webs. A separate set of carcinoma and leukoplakia images comprised a single malignant–premalignant class. All images were classified with their existing labels. Images were randomly withheld from each class for testing. The remaining images were used to train and validate a neural network for classifying vocal fold lesions. Two classifiers were developed. A multiclass system classified the five categories of benign lesions. A separate analysis was performed using a binary classifier trained to distinguish malignant–premalignant from benign lesions.

Results

Precision ranged from 71.7% (polyps) to 89.7% (papilloma), and recall ranged from 70.0% (papilloma) to 88.0% (nodules) for the benign classifier. Overall accuracy for the benign classifier was 80.8%. The binary classifier correctly identified 92.0% of the malignant–premalignant lesions with an overall accuracy of 93.0%.

Conclusions

Autonomous classification of endoscopic images with artificial intelligence technology is possible. Better network implementations and larger datasets will continue to improve classifier accuracy. A clinically useful optical cancer screening system may require a multimodality approach that incorporates nonvisual spectra.

Level of Evidence

NA Laryngoscope, 132:S1–S8, 2022

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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

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This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates recent evidence on the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on hearing outcomes in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss to determine if this treatment should be part of a combination regimen.
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Predictive Value of a Genomic Classifier in Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules Based on Nodule Size

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This case series examines the accuracy of a genomic classi fier in diagnosis and treatment of patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules.
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Tumor Site and the Prognosis and Immunogenomics of HPV-Related Cancers

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This cohort study categorizes tumors of the head and neck and the cervix by human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity status and compares their immunogenomic landscapes and associations with survival.
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Association of Performance on Dichotic Auditory Tests With Risk for Incident Dementia and Alzheimer Dementia

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This cohort study examines associations between signal sen sitivity, central auditory processing, and dementia and Alzheimer dementia risk.
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The Role of HPV in Cancer Prognosis

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In recent decades, it has become clear that most oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCCs) are associated with human papillomavirus (HPV), with a distinct biology and favorable prognosis vs head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) that originate in other anatomic subsites. The reasons for the superior survival outcomes and treatment responses seen in HPV-related OPSCC are not entirely well understood. However, it is known that viral oncoproteins within tumor cells can serve as a source of antigenic stimulation for immune cells w ithin the tumor microenvironment. Radiation and chemotherapy release these viral antigens from dying tumor cells, effectively turning the tumor into an in situ vaccine. These concepts are supported by the superior responses of HPV-related OPSCC to radiation, chemotherapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, the role of HPV in the prognosis of HNSCC outside the oropharynx is less clear. Fewer oral, laryngeal, and hypopharyngeal tumors are positive for HPV, although tumors at these sites are not routinely tested. Adding to the mystery, studies investigating whether these nonoropharyngeal, HPV-positive tumors are associated with improved prognosis vs their HPV-negative counterparts have shown mixed results. Tumors from other anatomic subsites of the head and neck often contain transcriptionally active virus and a nonkeratinizing, endophytic growth pattern similar to HPV-positive OPSCC, suggesting that the oncogenesis of these tumors is driven by the virus. However, collectively, these studies suggest that the association between HPV status and prognosis is not nearly as strong outside the oropharynx. In the case of cervical cancer, the effects of HPV on prognosis are also controversial, but this has been challenging to investigate because most cervical cancer cases are associated with HPV.
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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

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The treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) continues to be a substantial clinical challenge, in part because of the heterogeneity of the patient population and in part because of the difficulty of studying a disorder with no known causes and no defined, proven, or widely accepted course of clinical intervention. We read with interest the systematic review and meta-analysis by Joshua and colleagues on hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for patients with SSNHL. Rhee and colleagues published a review of the same topic i n 2019; however, their conclusions were criticized for significant heterogeneity of the pooled studies, which introduced potentially unsurmountable bias.
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