John F. Brenner

Local transforms for biomedical image analysis

Abstract A variety of transforms based on local operators have been successfully employed on images of medical importance, principally as an aid to scene segmentation. The properties of two of the most general purpose of these transforms—median smoothing and extremum sharpening—are described in detail. Examples are chosen from cytology, pathology, neurology, and ophthalmology.

Scene segmentation in automated histopathology: techniques evolved from cytology automation☆

Abstract Image analysis techniques developed for cytology automation are shown to be applicable or adaptable to the analysis of fixed tissue sections in some relatively simple cases. More sophisticated techniques, developed as extensions of the basic methods, are suggested for more complicated cases. Techniques highlighted include: isodensity contour tracing, geometrical boundary repair, heuristic search, regional pre-processing, Hough transforms, and general parallel edge finding algorithms. Applications include: leukocyte analysis (in blood, marrow, and tissue), morphometric analysis of bone tissue, morphometry of muscle and nerve fibers, and the grading of non-Hodgkins lymphomas and of intraductal breast lesions.

Automated system for the analysis of muscle and nerve biopsies.

An automated system has been developed for morphometric analysis of muscle and nerve fibers as seen in routine biopsy tissue preparations. This system, which is suitable both for research and clinical applications, is now in routine use at New England Medical Center Hospital. It is designed around commonly available hardware and uses our own custom software. Special sample preparation is not required, and the system will process almost any biopsy that is free from obvious artifact and suitable for manual assessment. In a typical biopsy, the system provides nearly full automation for the edge (boundary) determination of over 90%of the fibers encountered. An efficient, interactive mode allows for rapid analysis of the remaining 10%. Once fiber boundaries are determined, the system provides fully automatic measurement of the usual parameters such as fiber diameter, as well as a number of parameters not routinely measured with existing manual techniques. Typical analysis times are 35 min for muscle and 2 h for nerve. Complete report generation is provided, with hardcopy available in the pathologists office. This paper describes the operational aspects of the use of the automated analysis system in routine biopsy work.

Discrimination and consistency of five myosin ATPase stains in human normal and duchenne dystrophic muscle

SummaryLimitations in the ability of the human visual system to assess accurately the relative staining densities of individual fibers in muscle tissue stained for myosin ATPase can complicate the objective evaluation of fiber type populations. In this study a novel approach is employed which utilizes human visual capabilities to provide accurate fiber classification. Using this approach, the ability of five ATPase staining techniques to discriminate fiber type categories in single samples of human normal and Duchenne dystrophic skeletal muscle is evaluated, as is the consistency of the fiber type classifications between stains. While no major discrepancies in fiber typing were observed in the sample of normal muscle, significant differences in classification, along with a decrease in the ability to discriminate fiber types were noted in the sample of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. For the most part, these discrepancies were resolved by a re-interpretation of the staining characteristics of fibers in one stain.