CAD4GERD - computer-assisted diagnostic for gastroesophageal reflux disease. First results

One of the most common and in the frequency increasing diseases in the western world is the gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Intestinal metaplasia, also known as ""Barrett's Esophagus"" is a precancerous condition and complication of GERD. Unfortunately, for the histopathology of Barrett's Esophagus, a large inter-observer variation can be observed. Hence, a quantitative image-driven approach of computer assisted diagnosis (CAD) to support pathologists with an automated pre-analysis of the images is considered. Goal of this contribution is the evaluation of possibilities to differentiate histopathology automatically three types of tissue, namely normal squamous epithelium of the esophagus (EP), normal cardia mucosa (CA) and Barrett's Esophagus (BE).