Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a premalignant condition that has an increased risk to turn into esophageal adenocarcinoma. Classification and staging of the different changes (BE in particular) in the esophageal mucosa are challenging since they have a very similar appearance. Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is one of the newest endoscopy tools that is commonly used to identify the pathology type of the suspected area of the esophageal mucosa. However, it requires a well-trained physician to classify the image obtained from CLE. An automatic stage classification of esophageal mucosa is presented. The proposed model enhances the internal features of CLE images using an image filter that combines fractional integration with differentiation. Various features are then extracted on a multiscale level, to classify the mucosal tissue into one of its four types: normal squamous (NS), gastric metaplasia (GM), intestinal metaplasia (IM or BE), and neoplasia. These sets of features are used to train two conventional classifiers: support vector machine (SVM) and random forest. The proposed method was evaluated on a dataset of 96 patients with 557 images of different histopathology types. The SVM classifier achieved the best performance with 96.05% accuracy based on a leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. Additionally, the dataset was divided into 60% training and 40% testing; the model achieved an accuracy of 93.72% for the testing data using the SVM. The presented model showed superior performance when compared with four state-of-the-art methods. Accurate classification is essential for the intestinal metaplasia grade, which most likely develops into esophageal cancer. Not only does our method come to the aid of physicians for more accurate diagnosis by acting as a second opinion, but it also acts as a training method for junior physicians who need practice in using CLE. Consequently, this work contributes to an automatic classification that facilitates early intervention and decreases samples of required biopsy.
Oesophageal strictures often occur following esophagectomy which is performed for cases of oesophageal cancer. These patients require repeated dilation procedures. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of dietary regimens, which are changed because of stenosis, caused by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). In this retrospective study, 28 patients who had operation for oesophageal cancer and underwent dilation due to development of stricture were studied. 30 female and 30 male patients who were admitted to the Gastroenterology Clinic with complaints of dyspepsia and did not receive treatment for the eradication of H. pylori were randomly selected and included in this study as a control group. Patients' histopathological records on the hemogram, biochemistry, and endoscopic biopsy were analysed. There were 26 H. pylori (+) cases (92.8 %) in the stenosis group consisting of 28 patients, and 37 H. pylori (+) cases (61.6%) in the control group consisting of 60 patients. These results were found to be statistically significant (P=0.003). The albumin level in the stenosis group was reported to be statistically low (P=0.002). The incidence of H. pylori was found to be significantly higher in patients with stenosis. We ascribed this outcome due to changes in dietary regimens. Our findings showed that the dietary regimens of all patients who underwent esophagectomy should be regulated during the postoperative period considering H. pylori. The relationship between H. pylori and stenosis was significant, there is a need for further research with a larger sample size to enrich the findings.
In symptomatic young patients with gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, early identification of progressive gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is critical to prevent long-term complications associated with hiatal hernia, increased esophageal acid and nonacid exposure, release of proinflammatory cytokines, and development of intestinal metaplasia, endoscopically visible Barrett's esophagus, and dysplasia leading to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Progression of GERD may occur in asymptomatic patients and in those under continuous acid-suppressive medication. The long-term side effects of proton-pump inhibitors, chemopreventive agents, and radiofrequency ablation are contentious. In patients with early-stage disease, when the lower esophageal sphincter function is still preserved and before endoscopically visible Barrett's esophagus develops, novel laparoscopic procedures, such as magnetic and electric sphincter augmentation, may have a greater role than conventional surgical therapy. A multidisciplinary approach to GERD by a dedicated team of gastroenterologists and surgeons might impact the patients' lifestyle, the therapeutic choices, and the course of the disease. Biological markers are needed to precisely assess the risk of disease progression and to tailor surveillance, ablation, and management.