Improved detectability of small-bowel lesions via capsule endoscopy with computed virtual chromoendoscopy: A pilot study

Objective. Real-time video capsule endoscopy (CE) with flexible spectral imaging color enhancement (FICE) improves visibility of small-bowel lesions. This article aims to clarify whether CE-FICE also improves detectability of small-bowel lesions. Patients and methods. A total of 55 patients who underwent CE at Hiroshima University Hospital during the period November 2009 through March 2010 were enrolled in the study. Five patients were excluded from the study because residues and transit delays prevented sufficient evaluation. Thus, 50 patients participated. Two experienced endoscopists (each having interpreted more than 50 capsule videos) analyzed the images. One interpreted conventional capsule videos; the other, blinded to interpretation of the conventional images, interpreted CE-FICE images obtained at settings 1-3 (setting 1: red 595 nm, green 540 nm, blue 535 nm; setting 2: red 420 nm, green 520 nm, blue 530 nm; setting 3: red 595 nm, green 570 nm, blue 415 nm). Lesions were classified as angioectasia, erosion, ulceration, or tumor. Detectability was compared between the two modalities. Time taken to interpret the capsule videos was also determined. Results. Seventeen angioectasias were identified by conventional CE; 48 were detected by CE-FICE at setting 1, 45 at setting 2, and 24 at setting 3, with significant differences at settings 1 and 2 (p = 0.0003, p < 0.0001, respectively). Detection of erosion, ulceration, and tumor did not differ statistically between conventional CE and CE-FICE, nor did interpretation time (conventional CE 36 ± 6.9 min; CE-FICE setting 1, 36 ± 6.4 min; setting 2, 38 ± 5.8 min; setting 3, 35 ± 6.7 min). Conclusions. CE-FICE is superior in the lesion detection in comparison with conventional CE and improves detection of angioectasia

Host factors contributing to the discovery of gastric cancer after successful eradication therapy of Helicobacter pylori

Background and Aim: Clinical features of patients who develop gastric cancer after successful eradication of Helicobacter pylori are still unclear. We attempted to identify host factors associated with the discovery of gastric cancer, including changes in the background gastric mucosa in patients with atrophic gastritis. Methods: We enrolled 101 patients (59 men, 42 women; mean age 56.0 years) who underwent successful eradication therapy. All patients had no neoplastic lesion in the stomach and were diagnosed with corpus atrophic gastritis histologically before the eradication therapy. After successful eradication, these patients were followed up by an annual endoscopic examination (mean follow-up time 63.2 months; range 12–157 months). Fasting sera were obtained before and after eradication therapy and the serum levels of gastrin/pepsinogens were evaluated. Results: Gastric cancer occurred during follow-up in eight of the 101 patients (7.9%). We compared the host features between the cancer-discovered group (n = 8) and the non-discovered group (n = 93). We found no difference in gender, history of previous treatment of gastric cancer, and serum pepsinogen/gastrin levels at entry between them. The trends in alterations of serum markers did not differ between the two groups. However, gastric cancer was more frequently found in older patients (>54 years at eradication) than in others (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Improvement of gastric inflammation did not correlate with the discovery of gastric cancer after eradication; however, age at the time of eradication seemed to be important. Strict follow-up after eradication is needed in older patients with atrophic gastritis

Outcome of patients who have undergone total enteroscopy for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding

AIM: To assess the diagnostic success and outcome among patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding who underwent total enteroscopy with double-balloon endoscopy

Recognition of Local Features for Camera-based Sign-Language Recognition System

<小特集>ヒューマンインタフェースA sign-language recognition system should use information from both global features, such as hand movement and location, and local features, such as hand shape and orientation. We designed a system that first selects possible words by using the detected global features, then narrows the choices down to one by using the detected local features. In this paper, we describe an adequate local feature recognizer for a sign-language recognition system. Our basic approach is to represent the hand images extracted from sign-language images as symbols corresponding to clusters by using a clustering technique. The clusters are created from a training set of extracted hand images so that images with a similar appearance can be classified into the same cluster in an eigenspace. Experimental results showed that our system can recognize a signed word even in two-handed and hand-to-hand contact cases

Appearance-based Recognition of Hand Shapes for Sign Language in Low Resolution Image

4th Asian Conference on Computer Vision, ACCV2000 : January 8-11, 2000 : TaiwanA sign language recognition system is required to use information from both global features, such as hand movements and locations, and local features, such as hand shapes and orientations We propose that a system acquires the images taken of the body of a person performing sign language, and selects possible words by detecting global features, then narrowing them of on the choices to one by using local features detected from the extracted low resolution hand images In this paper, we present an adequate local feature recognizer for a sign language recognition system. Our basic approach is to represent a set of local features with a cluster where they preliminary experiment is performed for verification of this recognition method. The experimental result indicates that our proposed method is fit for the sign language recognition system