Signal processing method in autoradiography

摘要

A signal processing method in autoradiography for obtaining information on the one dimensional location of radioactively labeled substances in a sample where the substances of the sample are distributed in at least one row on a support medium where the information is in the form of symbols, numerals or a combination thereof. The method at least includes the steps of (1) generating digital image data where the data comprises sets of digital signals corresponding to the autoradiograph including the row of distributed substances and where the sets of digital signals may respectively represent successive linear portions of the autoradiograph; (2) scanning selected digital signals of the digital image data to generate at least one further signal representative of a predetermined portion of the row of distributed substances where the position of the predetermined portion is at least partially determined by its location in the scanning direction and the amount of radioactively labeled substance at the location is at least partially determined by the amplitude of the further signal; (3) processing the further signal with either or both of smoothing and threshold-processing to detect sampling point corresponding to the location of the predetermined portion of the row of distributed substances; (4) obtaining the image data digital corresponding to the autoradiograph having the locational information on the radioactively labeled substances where the digital image data is obtained by utilizing a radiation image recording and reproducing method employing a radiosensitive material. A signal processing method for determining the base sequence of DNA is also disclosed.