Endoscopic examination support apparatus, endoscopic examination support method, and recording medium

An endoscopic examination support method comprising:

• acquiring an endoscopic video captured by an endoscope;
• detecting a lesion candidate from the endoscopic video;
• for each pixel of a frame including the lesion candidate, estimate a lesion score, indicating a probability that the pixel belongs to a lesion area, using a lesion-score estimation model learned in advance, and generate a heat map by converting the lesion score into colors;
• extracting, from the heat map, a first threshold area consisting of first pixels having the lesion score equal to or greater than a first threshold and a second threshold area consisting of second pixels having the lesion score equal to or greater than a second threshold higher than the first threshold;
• superimposing and displaying, in a first display mode, the first threshold area on the endoscopic video;
• and
• superimpose and display, in a second display mode, the second threshold area on the endoscopic video, the second display mode being set to a lower transparency than is the first display mode,
• wherein superimposing and displaying any of the first threshold area on the endoscopic video in the first display mode and the second threshold area on the endoscopic video in the second display mode is based on determining that the lesion candidate has been obtained from a predetermined number of consecutive frames of the endoscopic video.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium recording a program, the program causing a computer to execute:

• acquiring an endoscopic video captured by an endoscope;
• detecting a lesion candidate from the endoscopic video;
• for each pixel of a frame including the lesion candidate, estimate a lesion score, indicating a probability that the pixel belongs to a lesion area, using a lesion-score estimation model learned in advance, and generate a heat map by converting the lesion score into colors;
• extracting, from the heat map, a first threshold area consisting of first pixels having the lesion score equal to or greater than a first threshold and a second threshold area consisting of second pixels having the lesion score equal to or greater than a second threshold higher than the first threshold;
• superimposing and displaying, in a first display mode, the first threshold area on the endoscopic video;
• and
• superimpose and display, in a second display mode, the second threshold area on the endoscopic video, the second display mode being set to a lower transparency than is the first display mode,
• wherein superimposing and displaying any of the first threshold area on the endoscopic video in the first display mode and the second threshold area on the endoscopic video in the second display mode is based on determining that the lesion candidate has been obtained from a predetermined number of consecutive frames of the endoscopic video.