Polyp-Alert: Near real-time feedback during colonoscopy

• We surveyed recent research in polyp detection in screening colonoscopy.
• We introduced a fast polyp detection algorithm cable of running at 10 frames per second on an off-the-shelf workstation. It correctly detects 97.7% of polyp shots in our data set.
• We evaluated our technique on 53 video files of procedures performed using Olympus and Fujinon scopes.
• Real-time polyp detection and feedback potentially help to reduce polyp miss rates to improve quality of care and quality of documentation.
• The proposed polyp detection algorithm is fast, effective, and potentially useful for improving quality of colonoscopy.

We present a software system called “Polyp-Alert” to assist the endoscopist find polyps by providing visual feedback during colonoscopy. Polyp-Alert employs our previous edge-cross-section visual features and a rule-based classifier to detect a polyp edge—an edge along the contour of a polyp. The technique employs tracking of detected polyp edge(s) to group a sequence of images covering the same polyp(s) as one polyp shot. In our experiments, the software correctly detected 97.7% (42 of 43) of polyp shots on 53 randomly selected video files of entire colonoscopy procedures. However, Polyp-Alert incorrectly marked only 4.3% of a full-length colonoscopy procedure as showing a polyp when they do not. The test data set consists of about 18 h worth of video data from Olympus and Fujinon endoscopes. The technique is extensible to other brands of colonoscopes. Furthermore, Polyp-Alert can provide as high as ten feedbacks per second for a smooth display of feedback. The performance of our system is by far the most promising to potentially assist the endoscopist find more polyps in clinical practice during a routine screening colonoscopy.