用弱监督方法实现溃疡性结肠炎病理评分,提升多中心数据下的自动化评估效果。
Weakly Supervised Multicenter Nancy Index Scoring in Ulcerative Colitis Using Foundation Models

- 基于基础模型与弱监督多重实例学习,仅需病例级标签即可训练
- 在三家医院的2019-2025年数据上实现五级Nancy指数预测准确率提升
- 适合临床研究与多中心病理自动化评估场景
溃疡性结肠炎(UC)活动度的组织学评估是临床试验和常规诊疗的重要终点,但使用如Nancy组织学指数(NHI)等指标进行人工评分耗时且易受观察者差异影响。尽管计算病理方法可实现自动化评分,但多数依赖密集的区域级标注,获取成本高,尤其在异质性、多中心队列中更为困难。本文提出一种弱监督多重实例学习(MIL)方法,针对全切片图像,仅使用病例级和切片级的NHI标签,结合基础模型进行学习。该方法聚焦于临床相关终点,包括中性粒细胞活动度及衍生的Nancy低/高分组,支持完整的五级NHI预测。在涵盖三家医院(2019–2025年)H&E染色结肠活检样本的多中心数据集上,我们评估了多种基础模型编码器与聚合策略。结果表明,基础模型选择与分辨率显著影响性能,其中Virchow2表现最稳定,且简单的集成规则优于分层门控基线,显著提升五级NHI预测能力。总体而言,本研究证明,结合现代基础模型表示的弱监督MIL方法可在真实多中心环境中实现鲁棒、可解释的UC组织学活动度评估。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Histologic assessment of ulcerative colitis (UC) activity is an important endpoint in clinical trials and routine care, but manual grading with indices such as the Nancy histological index (NHI) is time-consuming and prone to observer variability. While computational pathology methods can automate scoring, many approaches depend on dense region-level annotations, which are costly to obtain, particularly in heterogeneous, multicenter cohorts. We propose a weakly supervised multiple instance learning (MIL) approach for whole-slide images that learns from case- and slide-level NHI labels, leveraging foundation models. Our method targets clinically relevant endpoints, including neutrophilic activity and derived Nancy-low/high groupings, enabling full five-grade NHI prediction. On a multicenter dataset of H&E-stained colon biopsies from three hospitals (2019-2025), we evaluate multiple foundation model encoders and aggregation strategies. We find that foundation model choice and resolution substantially affect performance, with Virchow2 providing the most consistent gains, and that a simple ensembling rule improves five-grade NHI prediction compared to a hierarchical gating baseline. Overall, our results demonstrate that weakly supervised MIL with modern foundation-model representations can provide robust, interpretable UC histology activity assessment in realistic multicenter settings.
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