Method of and an apparatus for automatic classification of red blood cells

• US 4,097,845 A
• Filed: 08/18/1977
• Issued: 06/27/1978
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1976
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rush-Presbyterian St Luke's Medical Center Incorporated (Rush University)
• Original Assignee: Rush-Presbyterian St Luke's Medical Center Incorporated (Rush University)
• Inventors: Bacus, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo H.
• Application Number:
  US05/825,673
• Time in Patent Office: 313 Days
• Field of Search: 340/146.3 AC, 340/146.3 CA, 235/92 PC, 235/151.3, 250/201, 250/202, 250/204, 250/222 PC, 356/39, 356/102, 356/125, 356/244, 350/92, 23/230 B, 23/258.5, 128/2 A, 128/2 G, 324/71 CP
• US Class Current: 382/134
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1433 using image recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/69 Microscopic objects, e.g. biological cells or cellular parts

Abstract

A method and apparatus for automatically classifying abnormal and normal red blood cells is disclosed. The abnormal cells may be differentiated into mutually exclusive subpopulations. The individual hemoglobin characteristic for each red blood cell is measured and a hemoglobin parameter may be reported for each subpopulation of cells. Additionally, cell sizes are measured and the mean cell size and Wintrobe indices may be reported. The interior cell structures for red blood cells are analyzed and the cells are classified based on the presence or lack of a central pallor, their shape, size, and hemoglobin content.

Claims

1. An apparatus for automatically classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying individual abnormal red blood cells examined by its respective features into one of several abnormal cell subpopulations, and means for reporting the red blood cells in at least one of the respective abnormal cell subpopulations.

2. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells by an analysis of their respective outer peripheral shape and size features, means for optically analyzing the internal regions of the cells for optical density within the internal region of each cell, means for classifying the abnormal red blood cells by their respective features into abnormal cell subpopulations, and means for reporting at least one of said abnormal cell subpopulations.

3. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells comprising means for examining an image having a plurality of red blood cells therein, means for locating each red blood cell in said image, means for examining the peripheral boundary of each cell to extract features concerning the shape thereof, means for examining a center portion of each red blood cell for a substantially different density than said outer portion to provide an inner region feature, and means for classifying abnormal red blood cells into abnormal cell subpopulations based on each cell'"'"'s respective features.

4. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells for identifying features including a central pallor or a lack thereof, and means for classifying into one of several different and mutually exclusive subpopulations those red cells having a central pallor and those red cells lacking a central pallor.

5. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying abnormal red blood cells by features into subpopulations, and means for determining and reporting a hemoglobin parameter for at least one of said abnormal red blood cell subpopulations.

6. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells by image analysis comprising means for generating a microscopic image of a monolayer of red blood cells on a blood cell slide, means for converting said image by digitization into a quantized image and storing the latter, means for classifying abnormal red blood cells in said quantized image into subpopulations by examining their respective features, and means for reporting a hemoglobin parameter for at least one predetermined subpopulation of abnormal red blood cells.

7. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells on a slide by image analysis without staining of the red blood cells comprising means for fixing the central pallor of the blood cells on the slide without staining the red blood cells, means for examining the red blood cells optically at a light at which the white blood cells and other artifacts are transparent, means for digitizing an optical image of the red blood cells to form quantized images, means for locating the red blood cells in the quantized image, means for determining the size and shape features of the red blood cells, means for examining each cell for a central pallor feature or the lack thereof feature, means for measuring an optical density feature representative of a cell'"'"'s hemoglobin content, means for classifying said red blood cells into subpopulations in accordance with said features, and means for reporting a hemoglobin parameter for at least one predetermined subpopulation of red blood cells in the blood specimen.

8. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells comprising, means for generating a microscopic red blood cell image containing a plurality of red blood cells therein, means for converting said image by digitization into a quantized image and storing the quantized image in a digital computer, means for scanning the quantized image to find critical thresholds for picture elements of the quantized image indicating individual red blood cells in the original image, means for labeling each picture element connected to an initially located threshold picture element as a portion of and as defining a contiguous outer region for each cell, means for summing levels of the optical densities of the picture elements within each region to define a measure corresponding to the hemoglobin content for each red blood cell, means for examining each of the red blood cells of the digitized image to locate a central pallor boundary or the absence thereof, means for classifying the red blood cells into subpopulations having central pallor and no central pallors and in accordance with their sizes and shapes, and means for reporting parameters for said subpopulations including a hemoglobin characteristic for at least one subpopulation of said red blood cells.

9. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying individual abnormal red blood cells examined by their respective features into one of several abnormal cell subpopulations, and means for reporting for each abnormal cell subpopulation the following parameters:

a quantification in percent of the total population, the mean cell size, the mean cell hemoglobin, and the mean cell hemoglobin density.

10. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying each individual red blood cell examined by its respective features and for classifying abnormal red blood cells into one of several cell subpopulations, and means for reporting only those subpopulations of abnormal red cells actually found in and classified from the specimen.

11. An apparatus for automatically classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for differentiating and classifying each individual red blood cell examined by its respective features as either a normal erythrocyte or as an abnormal erythrocyte, and means for reporting the presence or absence of at least the abnormal erythrocytes.

12. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying each individual red blood cell examined by its respective features into cell subpopulations by differentiating the round blood cells from the non-round blood cells, means for further differentiating the round cells by analysis of their individual internal cell regions into subpopulations, and means for further differentiating the non-round cells into subpopulations.

13. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells for identifying features including their respective internal cell morphologies and their individual hemoglobin content, and means for classifying the abnormal red blood cells into subpopulations of abnormal cells based on their respective internal cell morphologies and hemoglobin contents.

14. An apparatus for classifying abnormal red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying each of the red blood cells examined by analysis of their individual cell hemoglobin content, and means for separately classifying into subpopulations of spherocyte cells and microcyte cells by analyses of said internal cell regions and hemoglobin contents.

15. An apparatus for classifying abnormal red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for classifying each of the red blood cells examined by their respective size, internal cell regions, and optical densities, and means for separately classifying target cells from macrocytes, normocytes, and other round cells by analysis of the internal central regions of said cells.

16. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells comprising means for examining the red blood cells to determine their outer peripheral boundary, means for generating a chain code representative of the peripheral boundary for each cell, means for analyzing the chain code to determine parameters of size, roundness, spicularity, and perimeter length for each cell, means for differentiating round cells from non-round cells on the basis of said parameters, and means for classifying some of red blood cells as abnormal red blood cells.

17. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for generating for each of the red blood cells examined a chain code, means for dividing the red cells into round and non-round categories based on an analysis of their respective chain codes, and means for classifying the non-round category cells into subpopulations based on an analysis of their spiculed, elongated, and size features obtained from their respective chain codes and for reporting out subpopulations of abnormal red cells.

18. An apparatus for classifying red blood cells in a blood specimen comprising the steps of:

means for examining a plurality of red blood cells in the blood specimen, means for examining each cell for first, second and third hematologically linguistic descriptors each having predetermined hematological liguistically descriptive modifiers, means for classifying abnormal red blood cells into subpopulations having mutually exclusive descriptors and mutually exclusive descriptive modifiers, and means reporting each subpopulation of red blood cells classified by its hematologically descriptive modifiers and descriptor.