Slide holding in digital pathology

A digital pathology system comprising a slide-holder and an image detection arrangement, the slide-holder comprising:

• a tray basis;
• a plurality of mounting means;
• and
• a plurality of slide-holder registration points;
• wherein the tray basis is configured to carry a plurality of slides to be imaged by the digital pathology system, for which the tray basis provides a plurality of slide-receiving positions;
• wherein the plurality of mounting means are arranged on the tray basis to mount the plurality of slides on the tray basis in a plurality of slide-receiving positions to image each slide in a separate imaging position;
• wherein the slide-holder registration points comprise a plurality of interacting portions that provide a mechanical registration of the tray basis with a digital pathology system for each of the imaging positions,
• wherein the slide-holder registration points are provided as bi-functional registration points, wherein the interacting portions, in addition to the mechanical registration, are provided as visible markers in images of the respective slides,
• wherein the system comprises an image detection arrangement arranged to acquire said images of the respective slides and of the respective visible markers, and wherein the system is further arranged to perform an optical registration with the tray basis of each image of each respective slide acquired using the image detection arrangement, by identifying the visible markers in the images and using these identified markers as reference points in the optical registration.

A digital pathology system according to claim 16, wherein the interacting portions of the slide holder are provided as mechanical abutting surface configured to engage with mechanical registration means of the slide-holder fixation arrangement for positioning the respective slide of the plurality of slides mounted on the slide-holder in relation to the system;

• and
• wherein, preferably, the interacting portions are provided as recesses of the tray basis;
• and
• wherein, further preferably, the recesses are provided as V-shaped recesses that provide a centered abutting of a protrusion element for the mechanical registration and that provide a detection in image processing for the optical registration.