Method of dynamic cell tracking in a sample

1. A method of dynamic cell tracking in a sample comprising the steps:

generating a correspondence measure between cells in two consecutive time-elapsed images of a sample;

evaluating said correspondence measure to generate events linking individual cells in the two images, the events being selected from the group: unchanged, cell removal, cell migration, cell collision and cell division;

providing a tracking output of events linking individual cells in the two images;

wherein the step of establishing linking events involves verifying the correctness of generated cell collision and cell division events, by calculating an adaptive threshold value for each such event and comparing the threshold value with an event parameter, and wherein the adaptive threshold value is calculated from the size of at least one of the cells involved in the generated event.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of generating a correspondence measure involves a particle filter algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

calculating, for each tracked cell, a parent and child count from the generated tracking output;

when parent count >1, a collision event is generated linking parent cells to child cell,

when child count >1, a division event is generated linking child cells to parent cell,

verifying the correctness of generated cell collision and cell division events, by calculating an adaptive threshold value for each such event and comparing the threshold value with an event parameter; and

updating the tracking output.

4. A system for dynamic cell tracking in a sample, comprising an imaging system arranged to provide consecutive time-elapsed images of the sample, and an image-receiving device arranged to track cells in a sample in accordance with the method of claim 1 .

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adaptive threshold value is proportional to the radius of the smallest cell involved in the generated event.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the adaptive threshold value is calculated by multiplying the radius of the smallest cell with variable depending on the cell motion in the sample.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the adaptive threshold value is calculated by multiplying the radius of the smallest cell with a user defined parameter in the range of 5 to 20, preferably 7.5 to 15.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

for generated cell collision events, the event parameter is a spatial relationship between the linked cells in the prior image; and

for generated cell division events, the event parameter is a spatial relationship between the linked cells in the posterior image.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein:

for generated cell collision events, the event parameter is the distance between the linked cells in the prior image; and

for generated cell division events, the event parameter is the distance between the linked cells in the posterior image.