Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jul 16, 2017; 9(7): 310-318
Published online Jul 16, 2017. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v9.i7.310
Use of shape-from-shading to characterize mucosal topography in celiac disease videocapsule images
Edward J Ciaccio, Govind Bhagat, Suzanne K Lewis, Peter H Green
Edward J Ciaccio, Govind Bhagat, Suzanne K Lewis, Peter H Green, Department of Medicine, Celiac Disease Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, United States
Govind Bhagat, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, United States
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol has been approved by the Columbia University Medical Center IRB.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Edward J Ciaccio, PhD, Department of Medicine, Celiac Disease Center, Columbia University, Harkness Pavilion 804, 180 Fort Washington Avenue, New York, NY 10032, United States. ciaccio@columbia.edu
Telephone: +1-212-3055447 Fax: +1-212-3420447
Received: December 14, 2016
Peer-review started: December 16, 2016
First decision: January 14, 2017
Revised: March 8, 2017
Accepted: June 6, 2017
Article in press: June 8, 2017
Published online: July 16, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To use a computerized shape-from-shading technique to characterize the topography of the small intestinal mucosa.

METHODS

Videoclips comprised of 100-200 images each were obtained from the distal duodenum in 10 celiac and 10 control patients. Images with high texture were selected from each videoclip and projected from two to three dimensions by using grayscale pixel brightness as the Z-axis spatial variable. The resulting images for celiac patients were then ordered using the Marsh score to estimate the degree of villous atrophy, and compared with control data.

RESULTS

Topographic changes in celiac patient three-dimensional constructs were often more variable as compared to controls. The mean absolute derivative in elevation was 2.34 ± 0.35 brightness units for celiacs vs 1.95 ± 0.28 for controls (P = 0.014). The standard deviation of the derivative in elevation was 4.87 ± 0.35 brightness units for celiacs vs 4.47 ± 0.36 for controls (P = 0.023). Celiac patients with Marsh IIIC villous atrophy tended to have the largest topographic changes. Plotted in two dimensions, celiac data could be separated from controls with 80% sensitivity and specificity.

CONCLUSION

Use of shape-from-shading to construct three-dimensional projections approximating the actual spatial geometry of the small intestinal substrate is useful to observe features not readily apparent in two-dimensional videocapsule images. This method represents a potentially helpful adjunct to detect areas of pathology during videocapsule analysis.

Keywords: Celiac disease, Duodenum, Shape-from-shading, Small intestine, Videocapsule

Core tip: Videocapsule images can assist in determining the presence and status of celiac disease; however, pathology is not always apparent by visual inspection. A computerized shape-from-shading technique was used to characterize the topography of the small intestinal mucosa. It was hypothesized that the automated measure would be helpful to distinguish celiac from control images and to gauge the degree of villous atrophy in the celiac patient data.