Tissue-slice image acquirement and display apparatus, tissue-slice image acquirement and display method, and tissue-slice image acquirement and display program

1. A tissue-slice image acquirement and display apparatus comprising:

an entire-image acquirer configured to:

acquire a bright-field image of an entirety of a first slice of a tissue; and

acquire a dark-field image of an entirety of a second slice of the tissue;

a modifier configured to:

extract a bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion within the bright-field image;

extract a dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion within the dark-field image;

modify the dark-field profile shape by:

aligning positionally the bright-field image with the dark-field image, and

replacing the dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion with the bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion for the dark-field image;

a magnified-image acquirer configured to determine a range encompassing the second slice on a basis of the dark-field profile shape modified by the modifier and that acquires, in a dark field, a magnified image of the second slice in the determined range; and

a display controller configured to cause the bright-field image to be displayed and cause a portion of the magnified image, the portion corresponding to a position selected in the bright-field image, to be displayed.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modifier modifies the dark-field profile shape by replacing the dark-field profile shape of the slice portion in the dark-field image with the bright-field profile shape responsive to detecting that the dark-field profile shape has a smaller area than the bright-field profile shape.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modifier modifies dark-field profile shape so that an area of the dark-field profile shape becomes equal to an area of the bright-field profile shape.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modifier modifies the dark-field profile shape so that an area of the bright-field profile shape and an area of the dark-field profile shape become equal to each other and an area of a polygon having a smallest area encompassing the bright-field profile shape and an area of a polygon having a smallest area encompassing the dark-field profile shape become equal to each other.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modifier aligns the dark-field profile shape with the bright-field profile shape by:

determining a first barycenter position of the bright-field profile shape;

determining a second barycenter position of the dark-field profile shape;

determining a positional displacement based on a difference between the first and second barycenter positions; and

shifting the dark-field profile shape by the positional displacement so that the first barycenter position substantially matches the second barycenter position.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the modifier aligns the dark-field profile shape with the bright-field profile shape by determining an angular displacement between the dark-field profile shape and the bright-field profile shape by determining a smallest mean square difference between the bright-field profile shape and shifted versions of the dark-field profile shape that are rotated around the second barycenter position.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the display controller causes the bright-field image and the portion of the magnified image to be displayed by determining pixels of the magnified image that correspond to pixels of the position selected in the bright-field image based on at least one of the of positional displacement or the angular displacement.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the bright-field image is stored as a first thumbnail image and the dark-field image is stored as a second thumbnail image.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the entire-image acquirer is configured to be offset by a predetermined angle from an optical axis of a light source.

10. A tissue-slice image acquirement and display method comprising:

acquiring a bright-field image, via a processor, of an entirety of a first slice of a tissue and a dark-field image of an entirety of a second slice of the tissue;

determining, via the processor, a bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion within the bright-field image;

determining, via the processor, a dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion within the dark-field image;

modifying, via the processor, the dark-field profile shape by:

aligning positionally the bright-field image with the dark-field image, and

replacing the dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion with the bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion for the dark-field image;

determining, via the processor, a range encompassing the second slice on a basis of the dark-field profile shape as modified and acquiring, in a dark field, a magnified image of the second slice in the determined range; and

causing, via the processor, the bright-field image to be displayed by a display unit and causing a portion of the magnified image, the portion corresponding to a position selected in the bright-field image, to be displayed.

11. A tissue-slice image acquirement and display program causing a computer to execute the steps of:

acquiring a bright-field image of an entirety of a first slice of a tissue and a dark-field image of an entirety of a second slice of the tissue;

determining a bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion within the bright-field image;

determining a dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion within the dark-field image;

modifying the dark-field profile shape by:

aligning positionally the bright-field image with the dark-field image, and

replacing the dark-field profile shape of the second slice portion with the bright-field profile shape of the first slice portion for the dark-field image;

determining a range encompassing the second slice on a basis of the dark-field profile shape as modified and acquiring, in a dark field, a magnified image of the second slice in the determined range; and

causing the bright-field image to be displayed and causing a portion of the magnified image, the portion corresponding to a position selected in the bright-field image, to be displayed.