METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING AN IMAGE OF A BIOLOGICAL SPECIMEN

• US 20080144915A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cytyc Corporation (Hologic Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cytyc Corporation (Hologic Incorporated)
• Inventors: Linder, Jim, Sheets, Ellen, Zahniser, David, Mui, Kathy, Wong, Kam Lin
• Granted Patent: US 9,070,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/133
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10056 Microscopic image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30024 Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/42 using transform domain methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/698 Matching; Classification

Abstract

Components, e.g., background, cytoplasm, nucleus and nucleolus, of a biological specimen are identified using multi-wavelength analysis. Specimen components, such as nucleoli, are selected, and a determination is made whether cells having nucleoli are cancer cells or regular repair cells based on one or more physical characteristics of the identified component. The physical characteristics can be one or more of a shape, size, texture and gray value.

Claims

1. A method of processing an image of a biological specimen, the specimen having a plurality of cells, the method comprising:

identifying components of the biological specimen based on spectral characteristics of the components;

selecting an identified component; and

determining whether cells having the selected component have a likelihood of being cancerous or non-cancerous based on one or more physical characteristics of the identified component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified components of the specimen includes one or more of background, cytoplasm and nuclear components of the specimen.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the nuclear components comprise nucleolus components.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the components of the specimen are identified using one or more light wavelengths in a range from about 400 nm to about 720 nm.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying components of the specimen comprises classifying a pixel of the image as a certain component of the biological specimen based on spectral characteristics of the pixel.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether cells corresponding to the selected components are cancer cells or normal repair cells.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether cells having the selected component have a likelihood of being cancerous or non-cancerous is based on a shape of the identified component.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether cells having the selected component have a likelihood of being cancerous or non-cancerous is based on a texture of the identified component.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether cells having the selected component have a likelihood of being cancerous or non-cancerous is based on a size of the identified component.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether cells having the selected component have a likelihood of being cancerous or non-cancerous is based on a transmittance or gray value of the identified component or of an image pixel of the identified component.

11. A method of processing an image of a biological specimen, the specimen having a plurality of cells, the method comprising:

identifying components of the biological specimen based on spectral characteristics of the components, the identified components including nucleus components;

selecting regions of the image having nucleus components having one or more nucleolus components; and

determining whether cells in the selected regions are cancer cells or repair cells based on one or more physical characteristics of the nucleolus components.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determination of whether cells in the selected regions are cancer cells or repair cells is based on one or more of a shape, a size, a texture and a transmittance of the nucleolus components.

13. A method of processing an image of a biological specimen, the specimen having a plurality of cells, the method comprising:

selecting a field of view from a plurality of fields of view of the image;

selecting a field of view;

classifying pixels of selected field of view as background, cytoplasm, nucleus or nucleolus components based on spectral characteristics of the pixels;

selecting pixel regions of the selected field of view that correspond to nucleolus components; and

determining whether cells in the selected pixel regions are cancer cells or repair cells based on one or more physical characteristics of the nucleolus components.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the physical components include one or more of a shape, a size, a texture and a transmittance of the nucleolus components.

15. A system for processing an image of a biological specimen having a plurality of cells, comprising:

an imager having a processor configured to identify components of the biological specimen based on spectral characteristics of the components, select an identified component, and determine whether cells in the image having the selected component are cancerous or non-cancerous based on one or more physical characteristics of the identified component.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor identifies components of the specimen based on identifying one or more of background, cytoplasm and nuclear components of the specimen.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein identifying nuclear components comprises identifying nucleolus components.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the components of the specimen are identified using one or more light wavelengths in a range from about 400 nm to about 720 nm, the system comprising a source or sources of the one or more light wavelengths

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor identifies components of the specimen based on classifying a pixel of the image as a certain component of the biological specimen based on spectral characteristics of the pixel.

20. The system of claim 15, the processor further configured to determine whether cells corresponding to the selected components are cancer cells or normal repair cells based on one or more of a shape, a texture, a size and a transmittance of the identified component.