ROBUST STAIN DETECTION AND QUANTIFICATION FOR HISTOLOGICAL SPECIMENS BASED ON A PHYSICAL MODEL FOR STAIN ABSORPTION

摘要

A physics based model of the absorption of light by histological stains used to measure the amount of one or more stains at location within tissue is disclosed. The subsequent analysis result in several improvements in the detection of tissue on a slide, improvement to autofocus algorithms so focusing during image acquisition is confined to tissue, improvements to ima ge segmentation and identification of tissued and its features, improvements to the identification of stain where multiple stains are used, and improvements to the quantification of the extent of staining. The invention relates to th e application of these improvements to stain detection and quantification to provide for objective comparison between tissues and closer correlation between the presentations of such features and concurrents patterns of gene or protein expression.