Virtual disease landscape using mechanics-informed machine learning: Application to esophageal disorders

Sourav Halder, Jun Yamasaki, Shashank Acharya, Wenjun Kou, Guy Elisha, Dustin A. Carlson, Peter J. Kahrilas, John E. Pandolfino, Neelesh A. Patankar*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Esophageal disorders are related to the mechanical properties and function of the esophageal wall. Therefore, to understand the underlying fundamental mechanisms behind various esophageal disorders, it is crucial to map mechanical behavior of the esophageal wall in terms of mechanics-based parameters corresponding to altered bolus transit and increased intrabolus pressure. We present a hybrid framework that combines fluid mechanics and machine learning to identify the underlying physics of various esophageal disorders (motility disorders, eosinophilic esophagitis, reflux disease, scleroderma esophagus) and maps them onto a parameter space which we call the virtual disease landscape (VDL). A one-dimensional inverse model processes the output from an esophageal diagnostic device called the functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) to estimate the mechanical “health” of the esophagus by predicting a set of mechanics-based parameters such as esophageal wall stiffness, muscle contraction pattern and active relaxation of esophageal wall. The mechanics-based parameters were then used to train a neural network that consists of a variational autoencoder that generated a latent space and a side network that predicted mechanical work metrics for estimating esophagogastric junction motility. The latent vectors along with a set of discrete mechanics-based parameters define the VDL and formed clusters corresponding to specific esophageal disorders. The VDL not only distinguishes among disorders but also displayed disease progression over time. Finally, we demonstrated the clinical applicability of this framework for estimating the effectiveness of a treatment and tracking patients' condition after a treatment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number102435
JournalArtificial Intelligence In Medicine
Volume134
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2022

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Grants R01-DK079902 , P01-DK117824 (to J.E. Pandolfino) and by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grants OAC 1450374 and OAC 1931372 (to N.A. Patankar).

Keywords

  • Achalasia
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Convolutional neural network
  • Dysphagia
  • FLIP
  • Variational autoencoder

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Artificial Intelligence

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