Image measurement apparatus and image measurement method for determining a proportion of positive cell nuclei among cell nuclei included in a pathologic examination specimen

1. An image measurement apparatus, comprising:

a lighting unit configured to emit a first narrowband light that is a light with a bandwidth (i) narrower than a bandwidth of a visible light and (ii) including a dominant wavelength of a color of a positive cell nucleus, and configured to emit a broadband light that is a light with a bandwidth broader than the bandwidth of the first narrowband light;

an image obtaining unit configured to obtain an examination image by capturing an image of a pathologic examination specimen to which the first narrowband light is emitted, and configured to obtain a reference image by capturing an image of a pathologic reference specimen to which the broadband light is emitted;

a dominant wavelength calculating unit configured to calculate the dominant wavelength of the color of the positive cell nucleus included in the reference image;

a threshold calculating unit configured to calculate, as a predetermined threshold, a threshold for extracting pixels of positive cell nuclei from the reference image by performing threshold processing, based on a light intensity of the dominant wavelength calculated by the dominant wavelength calculating unit;

a cell nuclei extracting unit configured to extract pixels of positive cell nuclei from the examination image by comparing pixel values of the examination image with the predetermined threshold;

a positive proportion calculating unit configured to calculate a proportion of the positive cell nuclei among cell nuclei included in the pathologic examination specimen, using the pixels of the positive cell nuclei extracted by the cell nuclei extracting unit; and

an output unit configured to output the proportion calculated by the positive proportion calculating unit.

2. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the dominant wavelength calculating unit is configured to calculate a dominant wavelength of each of colors of the positive cell nuclei included in the reference image, the colors of the positive cell nuclei including the color of the positive cell nucleus,

the image measurement apparatus further comprises a distribution center calculating unit configured to calculate a center wavelength of the dominant wavelengths of the colors of the positive cell nuclei calculated by the dominant wavelength calculating unit, and

the lighting unit is configured to emit, as the first narrowband light, a light with a bandwidth (i) narrower than the bandwidth of the visible light and (ii) including the center wavelength calculated by the distribution center calculating unit.

3. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the dominant wavelength calculating unit is further configured to calculate a complementary dominant wavelength of colors of the positive cell nuclei included in the reference image when the colors do not have any dominant wavelength,

the threshold calculating unit is configured to calculate, as the predetermined threshold, a threshold for extracting pixels of the positive cell nuclei from the reference image by performing the threshold processing, based on a light intensity of the complementary dominant wavelength calculated by the dominant wavelength calculating unit,

the lighting unit is configured to emit, in place of the first narrowband light, a second narrowband light that is a light with a bandwidth (i) narrower than the bandwidth of the visible light and (ii) including the complementary dominant wavelength, and

the image obtaining unit is further configured to obtain an examination image by capturing an image of a pathologic examination specimen to which the second narrowband light is emitted.

4. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the lighting unit is configured to emit, in place of the first narrowband light, a third narrowband light that is a light with a bandwidth (i) narrower than the bandwidth of the visible light and (ii) including a dominant wavelength of a color of a tissue other than the positive cell nuclei, and

the image obtaining unit is further configured to obtain an examination image by capturing an image of a pathologic examination specimen to which the third narrowband light is emitted.

5. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 4 ,

wherein the dominant wavelength calculating unit is further configured to calculate the dominant wavelength of the color of the tissue included in the reference image, and

the threshold calculating unit is further configured to calculate, as the predetermined threshold, a threshold for extracting the pixels of the positive cell nuclei from the reference image by performing the threshold processing, based on a light intensity of the dominant wavelength of the color of the tissue calculated by the dominant wavelength calculating unit.

6. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising

a control unit configured to move an imaging surface of the image obtaining unit to a position on which the first narrowband light is focused, the first narrowband light being emitted by the lighting unit.

7. The image measurement apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the bandwidth of the first narrowband light is smaller than a bandwidth of a light that passes through one of RGB color filters.

8. An image measurement method, comprising:

emitting a broadband light that is a light with a predetermined bandwidth;

obtaining a reference image by capturing an image of a pathologic reference specimen to which the broadband light is emitted;

calculating a dominant wavelength of a color of a positive cell nucleus included in the reference image;

calculating, as a predetermined threshold, a threshold for extracting pixels of positive cell nuclei from the reference image by performing threshold processing, based on a light intensity of the calculated dominant wavelength;

emitting a narrowband light that is a light with a bandwidth narrower than the bandwidth of the broadband light and including the dominant wavelength;

obtaining an examination image by capturing an image of a pathologic examination specimen to which the narrowband light is emitted;

extracting pixels of positive cell nuclei from the examination image by comparing pixel values of the examination image with the predetermined threshold;

calculating a proportion of the positive cell nuclei among cell nuclei included in the pathologic examination specimen using the extracted pixels of the positive cell nuclei; and

outputting the calculated proportion.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a program causing a computer to execute the image measurement method according to claim 8 is recorded.