Image processing device, pathological diagnosis support system, storage medium for image processing, and image processing method

An image processing method comprising;

• an input step of inputting to a processor a bright field image showing a shape of a cell in a tissue section and a fluorescence image showing presence of a target biological substance as a fluorescent bright point in the same range of the tissue section as the bright field image;
• a first generation step of generating, by the processor, a cell image showing an extracted specific site of the cell from the bright field image;
• a second generation step of generating an image showing an extracted bright point region from the fluorescence image, to generate a luminance profile for the bright point region, to identify extracted fluorescent particles in the extracted bright point region using a reference luminance profile of a single fluorescence particle, and to generate a fluorescent particle image showing the identified fluorescent particles in the bright point region;
• and
• an addition step of adding, by the processor, the cell image and the fluorescent particle image thereby displaying the identified fluorescent particles in each cell of the cell image.

A method for forming an image by using a bright field image to show a shape of a cell in a tissue section and a fluorescence image to show presence of a target biological substance as a fluorescent bright point in the same range of the tissue section as the bright field image, comprising;

• a first step of generating by a processor a cell image showing an extracted specific site of the cell from the bright field image;
• a second generation step of generating by the processor an image showing an extracted bright point region from the fluorescence image, to generate a luminance profile for the bright point region, to identify extracted fluorescent particles in the extracted bright point region using a reference luminance profile of a single fluorescence particle, and to generate a fluorescent particle image showing the identified fluorescent particles in the bright point region;
• and
• an addition step of adding by the processor the cell image and the fluorescent particle image thereby displaying the identified fluorescent particles in each cell of the cell image.