The following shows how to find the top item in the displayed tree for a selected item in an extension view. This is applicable to item-view extensions.

public IswItem GetTopItem()
{
var currentNodePath = _host.GetCurrentNodePath();
if (currentNodePath.Count > 0)
return currentNodePath[0].Owner;
else
return _currentItem;
}
Assuming that _currentItem is the currently selected item in the tree and _host is your IswItemViewHost.