Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis

Context: Mosaics of Whole Slides (WS) are a valuable resource for pathologists to have the whole sample available at high resolution. The WS mosaic provides pathologists with an overview of the whole sample at a glance, helping them to make a reliable diagnosis. Despite recent solutions exist for cr...

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Main Authors: Alessandro Gherardi, Alessandro Bevilacqua
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2013-01-01
Series:Journal of Pathology Informatics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jpathinformatics.org/article.asp?issn=2153-3539;year=2013;volume=4;issue=2;spage=9;epage=9;aulast=Gherardi
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author Alessandro Gherardi
Alessandro Bevilacqua
author_facet Alessandro Gherardi
Alessandro Bevilacqua
author_sort Alessandro Gherardi
collection DOAJ
description Context: Mosaics of Whole Slides (WS) are a valuable resource for pathologists to have the whole sample available at high resolution. The WS mosaic provides pathologists with an overview of the whole sample at a glance, helping them to make a reliable diagnosis. Despite recent solutions exist for creating WS mosaics based, for instance, on automated microscopes with motorized stages or WS scanner, most of the histopathology analysis are still performed in laboratories endowed with standard manual stage microscopes. Nowadays, there are lots of dedicated devices and hardware to achieve WS automatically and in batch, but only few of them are conceived to work tightly connected with a microscope and none of them is capable of working in real-time with common light microscopes. However, there is a need of having low-cost yet effective mosaicing applications even in small laboratories to improve routine histopathological analyses or to perform remote diagnoses. Aims: The purpose of this work is to study and develop a real-time mosaicing algorithm working even using non-automated microscopes, to enable pathologists to achieve WS while moving the holder manually, without exploiting any dedicated device. This choice enables pathologists to build WS in real-time, while browsing the sample as they are accustomed to, helping them to identify, locate, and digitally annotate lesions fast. Materials and Methods: Our method exploits fast feature tracker and frame to frame registration that we implemented on common graphics processing unit cards. The system work with common light microscopes endowed with a digital camera and connected to a commodity personal computer. Result and Conclusion: The system has been tested on several histological samples to test the effectiveness of the algorithm to work with mosaicing having different appearances as far as brightness, contrast, texture, and detail levels are concerned, attaining sub-pixel registration accuracy at real-time interactive rates.
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spelling doaj.art-1603523220434c7ca8183a9cb2f0171f2022-12-22T03:36:01ZengElsevierJournal of Pathology Informatics2153-35392153-35392013-01-01429910.4103/2153-3539.109867Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysisAlessandro GherardiAlessandro BevilacquaContext: Mosaics of Whole Slides (WS) are a valuable resource for pathologists to have the whole sample available at high resolution. The WS mosaic provides pathologists with an overview of the whole sample at a glance, helping them to make a reliable diagnosis. Despite recent solutions exist for creating WS mosaics based, for instance, on automated microscopes with motorized stages or WS scanner, most of the histopathology analysis are still performed in laboratories endowed with standard manual stage microscopes. Nowadays, there are lots of dedicated devices and hardware to achieve WS automatically and in batch, but only few of them are conceived to work tightly connected with a microscope and none of them is capable of working in real-time with common light microscopes. However, there is a need of having low-cost yet effective mosaicing applications even in small laboratories to improve routine histopathological analyses or to perform remote diagnoses. Aims: The purpose of this work is to study and develop a real-time mosaicing algorithm working even using non-automated microscopes, to enable pathologists to achieve WS while moving the holder manually, without exploiting any dedicated device. This choice enables pathologists to build WS in real-time, while browsing the sample as they are accustomed to, helping them to identify, locate, and digitally annotate lesions fast. Materials and Methods: Our method exploits fast feature tracker and frame to frame registration that we implemented on common graphics processing unit cards. The system work with common light microscopes endowed with a digital camera and connected to a commodity personal computer. Result and Conclusion: The system has been tested on several histological samples to test the effectiveness of the algorithm to work with mosaicing having different appearances as far as brightness, contrast, texture, and detail levels are concerned, attaining sub-pixel registration accuracy at real-time interactive rates.http://www.jpathinformatics.org/article.asp?issn=2153-3539;year=2013;volume=4;issue=2;spage=9;epage=9;aulast=GherardiHistopathologyimage analysisimage registrationreal-time mosaicingwhole slide
spellingShingle Alessandro Gherardi
Alessandro Bevilacqua
Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
Journal of Pathology Informatics
Histopathology
image analysis
image registration
real-time mosaicing
whole slide
title Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
title_full Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
title_fullStr Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
title_full_unstemmed Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
title_short Real-time whole slide mosaicing for non-automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
title_sort real time whole slide mosaicing for non automated microscopes in histopathology analysis
topic Histopathology
image analysis
image registration
real-time mosaicing
whole slide
url http://www.jpathinformatics.org/article.asp?issn=2153-3539;year=2013;volume=4;issue=2;spage=9;epage=9;aulast=Gherardi
work_keys_str_mv AT alessandrogherardi realtimewholeslidemosaicingfornonautomatedmicroscopesinhistopathologyanalysis
AT alessandrobevilacqua realtimewholeslidemosaicingfornonautomatedmicroscopesinhistopathologyanalysis