Identification of inflammation in tissue images
Systems and methods are provided for identifying markers for inflammation in a tissue image. The tissue image is captured as an image of a histology slide. Subcellular structures in the tissue image are segmented via a first automated process to identify at least one variety of immune cells within the image. Glands and vilii are identified within the tissue image via a second automated process. Neutrophils are identified within the tissue image via a third automated process. An output representing the identified glands, villi, neutrophils, and other immune cells is provided to a human operator.
1. A method of identifying markers for inflammation in a tissue image comprising:
capturing the tissue image as an image of a histology slide;
segmenting subcellular structures in the tissue image, via a first automated process, to identify at least one variety of immune cells within the tissue image;
identifying glands and villi within the tissue image via a second automated process;
identifying neutrophils within the tissue image via a third automated process; and
providing an output representing the identified at least one variety of immune cells, the identified glands, the identified villi, and the identified neutrophils to a human operator.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein segmenting subcellular structures in the tissue image via the first automated process comprises:
constructing a layered graph model, comprising a plurality of vertices and a plurality of edges according to at least one constraint;
determining respective weights for each of the plurality of vertices and the plurality of edges according to at least one photometric prior; and
determining a set of boundaries, represented by a path having a lowest total energy in the layered graph model, for a nucleus and a cytoplasm of a cell represented by the layered graph model.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the cell as one of a plasma cell, a lymphocyte, and an eosinophil from the determined set of boundaries.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying glands and villi within the tissue image via the second automated process comprises:
generating a superpixel segmentation of the image comprising a plurality of superpixels;
classifying each of the plurality of superpixels as one of epithelium, lumen, and extracellular material;
generating an initial pseudo-probability map from the classified plurality of superpixels;
generating a plurality of candidate objects in the tissue image according to the generated initial pseudo-probability map; and
classifying each candidate object by an associated pattern recognition classifier.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying neutrophils within the tissue image via the third automated process comprises:
generating a segmentation of the tissue image such that the lobes of each cell of a plurality of cells are grouped into one segment, which contains no lobes from other cells, to provide a plurality of segments;
classifying each of the plurality of segments to identify a plurality of high confidence examples of neutrophils and non-neutrophil cells;
applying a clustering process, utilizing a Voronoi diagram of clusters model, to the classified segments to locate high-confidence and low-confidence examples of neutrophils and non-neutrophil cells;
generating a plurality of classifiers, each representing a Voronoi diagram cell; and
classifying each ambiguous segment of the plurality of segments by at least one of the plurality of classifiers as a neutrophil or a non-neutrophil.