Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Dec 27, 2018; 10(12): 934-943
Published online Dec 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i12.934
Non-invasive prediction of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in Japanese patients with morbid obesity by artificial intelligence using rule extraction technology
Daisuke Uehara, Yoichi Hayashi, Yosuke Seki, Satoru Kakizaki, Norio Horiguchi, Hiroki Tojima, Yuichi Yamazaki, Ken Sato, Kazuki Yasuda, Masanobu Yamada, Toshio Uraoka, Kazunori Kasama
Daisuke Uehara, Masanobu Yamada, Department of Medicine and Molecular Science, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Daisuke Uehara, Satoru Kakizaki, Norio Horiguchi, Hiroki Tojima, Yuichi Yamazaki, Ken Sato, Toshio Uraoka, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Yoichi Hayashi, Department of Computer Science, Meiji University, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8571, Japan
Yosuke Seki, Kazunori Kasama, Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery Center, Yotsuya Medical Cube, Tokyo 102-0084, Japan
Kazuki Yasuda, Department of Metabolic Disorder, Diabetes Research Center, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan.
Masanobu Yamada, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Author contributions: Uehara D, Hayashi Y, Seki Y and Kakizaki S designed research; Uehara D, Horiguchi N, Yamazaki Y, Sato K and Yasuda D contributed to data acquisition; Hayashi Y analyzed data using artificial intelligence; Uehara D and Tojima H performed statistical analyses; and Yamada M, Uraoka T and Kasama K supervised the study.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by institutional review boards of Yotsuya Medical Cube and Gunma University.
Informed consent statement: For this study using artificial intelligence using rule extraction technology, opt-out was obtained.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Satoru Kakizaki, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Showa-machi, 3-39-15, Maebashi 371-8511, Gunma, Japan. kakizaki@gunma-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-27-2208127 Fax: +81-27-2208136
Received: June 26, 2018
Peer-review started: July 2, 2018
First decision: August 1, 2018
Revised: August 20, 2018
Accepted: October 17, 2018
Article in press: October 17, 2018
Published online: December 27, 2018
Processing time: 184 Days and 22.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The prevalence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in Japanese morbidly obese patients is extremely high, and early intervention should be undertaken. However, it is difficult to perform a percutaneous liver biopsy or elastography in routine medical care, especially in morbidly obese patients. We therefore attempted to construct a non-invasive prediction algorithm in order to predict NASH in Japanese morbidly obese patients using artificial intelligence with rule extraction technology. Although further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to confirm the results, this algorithm may be useful for non-invasively predicting NASH in morbidly obese Japanese patients in the clinical setting.