Systems and methods for finding regions of interest in hematoxylin and eosin (HandE) stained tissue images and quantifying intratumor cellular spatial heterogeneity in multiplexed/hyperplexed fluorescence tissue images

A computerized system for identifying regions of interest in a stained tissue image comprising:

• a processing apparatus, wherein the processing apparatus is structured and configured to generate color normalized image data representing the stained tissue image in an opponent color space by:
• (i) transforming image data that represents the stained tissue image into the opponent color space to create opponent color space data by employing an orthogonal projection matrix that opponently places pixels of a first color and pixels of a second color so as to maximally separate hue values of the pixels of the first color and the pixels of the second color in a complex color plane, and (ii) normalizing the opponent color space data, and wherein the processing apparatus includes;
• a quantifying component configured for determining mutual information data indicative of statistical associations between neighboring pixels in the color normalized image data representing the stained tissue image;
• an identifying component configured for identifying and detecting boundaries of histological structures within the stained tissue image based on the determined mutual information data;
• and
• a segmented tissue image generating component configured for generating and storing a digital segmented stained tissue image using the image data that represents the stained tissue image and the detected boundaries of the identified histological structures.

A method of identifying regions of interest in a stained tissue image, comprising:

• electronically receiving color normalized image data representing the stained tissue image in an opponent color space, wherein the color normalized image data is obtained by:
• (i) transforming image data that represents the stained tissue image into the opponent color space to create opponent color space data by employing an orthogonal projection matrix that opponently places pixels of a first color and pixels of a second color so as to maximally separate hue values of the pixels of the first color and the pixels of the second color in a complex color plane, and (ii) normalizing the opponent color space data;
• quantifying local spatial statistics for the stained tissue image based on inter-nuclei distance distributions determined from the color normalized image data;
• identifying and detecting boundaries of histological structures within the stained tissue image based on the quantified local spatial statistics;
• and
• generating and storing a digital segmented stained tissue image using the image data that represents the stained tissue image and the detected boundaries of the identified histological structures.

A computerized system for identifying regions of interest in a stained tissue image comprising:

• a processing apparatus, wherein the processing apparatus is structured and configured to generate color normalized image data representing the stained tissue image in an opponent color space by:
• (i) transforming image data that represents the stained tissue image into the opponent color space to create opponent color space data by employing an orthogonal projection matrix that opponently places pixels of a first color and pixels of a second color so as to maximally separate hue values of the pixels of the first color and the pixels of the second color in a complex color plane, and (ii) normalizing the opponent color space data, and wherein the processing apparatus includes;
• a quantifying component configured for quantifying local spatial statistics for the stained tissued image based on inter-nuclei distance distributions determined from color normalized image data representing the stained tissue image;
• an identifying component configured for identifying and detecting boundaries of histological structures within the stained tissue image based on the quantified local spatial statistics;
• and
• a segmented tissue image generating component configured for generating and storing a digital segmented stained tissue image using the image data that represents the stained tissue image and the detected boundaries of the identified histological structures.