Development and Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Bowel Preparation Quality Scoring

Colonoscopy is recommended as a routine examination for colorectal cancer screening. Adequate bowel preparation is indispensable to ensure a clear vision of colonic mucosa，complete inspection of all colon segments, and furthermore improves the detection rates of small adenomas. Thus, the adequacy of bowel preparation should be accurately evaluated and documented. However, the accuracy of current bowel preparation quality scales greatly relies on intra-observer and inter-observer consistency for lack of objective measurements. Recently, deep learning based on central neural networks (CNN) has shown multiple potential in computer-aided detection and computer-aided diagnose of gastrointestinal lesions. While, no studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance of deep learning algorithm in bowel preparation quality scoring. This study aims to train an algorithm to assess bowel preparation quality using the BBPS, and testify whether the engagement of AI can improve the quality control parameters of colonoscopy.