Method and apparatus for processing an image of a tissue sample microarray
AssigneeBacus Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsJames W. Bacus, James V. Bacus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing an image of a tissue sample microarray include placing a plurality of tissue samples in an array on a microscope slide. The tissue samples are then simultaneously and uniformly treated, as by staining. Images of the tissue making up the microarray are captured and stored together with identifying information related thereto. The images may be displayed from the digital storage medium using a programmed processor which can select various magnifications for display. The images also can be accessed by network and remotely.
Claims53
A method of analyzing dots having cellular material and arranged in a microarray comprising:
- providing a microscope slide with a microarray of dots thereon arranged in columns and rows;
- acquiring a low magnification image of the microarray showing the magnified dots and their respective positions in the microarray;
- using low magnification image of the dots and their respective locations to locate the dots within the microarray for analysis;
- and
- performing an analysis for a dot image located from the low magnification image.
A method of analyzing dots having cellular material and arranged in a microarray comprising:
- providing a microscope slide with a microarray of dots thereon arranged in columns and rows;
- acquiring a low magnification image of the microarray showing the magnified dots and their respective positions in the microarray;
- using low magnification image of the dots and their respective locations to locate the dots within the microarray for analysis;
- performing an analysis for a dot image located from the low magnification image;
- and
- providing a higher magnification image of the located dot and performing an analysis on the high magnification image of the located dot.
A method of analyzing dots having cellular material and arranged in a microarray comprising:
- providing a microscope slide with a microarray of dots thereon arranged in columns and rows;
- acquiring a low magnification image of the microarray showing the magnified dots and their respective positions in the microarray;
- using low magnification image of the dots and their respective locations to locate the dots within the microarray for analysis;
- performing an analysis for a dot image located from the low magnification image;
- and
- acquiring and tiling adjacent high magnification images of a single field of view for each dot located from the low magnification image of the microarray of dots.
A method of analyzing dots having cellular material and arranged in a microarray comprising:
- providing a microscope slide with a microarray of dots thereon arranged in columns and rows;
- acquiring a low magnification image of the microarray showing the magnified dots and their respective positions in the microarray;
- using low magnification image of the dots and their respective locations to locate the dots within the microarray for analysis;
- performing an analysis for a dot image located from the low magnification image;
- providing several microarrays on the same microscope slide with each of the microarrays having hundreds of dots thereon;
- forming a database for the images of the dots;
- and
- indexing the respective dot images with a unique identifier associated with the location of dots in each of the microarrays on the microscope slide.
An apparatus for analyzing specimen dots having cellular material and arranged in a microarray on a microscope slide, the apparatus comprising:
- a microscope for providing magnified images of the dots from the specimen dots on the microscope slide;
- an imager for providing signals representative of a magnified image for each of the specimen dots;
- a display coupled to the imager and operable to display a microarray of magnified dot images in their respective positions within the microarray to assist in locating a specimen dot image for analysis;
- and
- a processor connected to the display and operable to index an analysis made from the magnified dot image with the specimen dot in the microarray on the microscope.
A method of capturing images of a microarray of tissue samples on a microscope at low and high magnifications for retrieval and display, the method comprising:
- acquiring a low magnification image of the microarray showing a grid of tissue samples from the slide;
- selecting a sub-array of a grid of tissue images displayed at low magnification;
- acquiring high magnification images of the located tissue samples within the subarray;
- and
- associating unique identification information with each of the respective tissue sample images in the microarray so that individual tissue samples in the microarray can be selected and high magnification images thereof be acquired for evaluation.
An apparatus for capturing images of a microarray of tissue samples on a microscope slide at low and high magnifications for retrieval and display, the apparatus comprising:
- a microscope for providing low and high magnification views from tissue samples on the microscope slide;
- an imager for acquiring images of the tissue samples;
- a display for displaying acquired images from the imager;
- a processor coupled to the imager;
- the processor being operable for selecting and displaying a sub-array of a grid of tissue images at low magnification;
- the processor being operable with imager and display for acquiring high magnification images of tissue samples in the microarray;
- and
- the processor operable for associating index information with the low magnification images so that individual tissue samples in the microarray can be accessed for evaluation.
A data structure for a microarray of tissue samples on a microscope slide comprising:
- low magnification image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for providing an image at low magnification of the microarray of tissue samples on a microscope slide;
- high magnification image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for providing an image at high magnification of a tissue sample for evaluation;
- data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for connecting the high magnification data for a tissue sample image with the low magnification image of the same tissue sample in the microarray;
- and
- index identification data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for each of the tissue sample images in the microarray to identify the tissue sample image with the tissue sample in the microarray.
A data structure for a microarray of tissue sample images and identification information for each of the tissue samples in the microarray comprising:
- low magnification, image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for adjacent tiles of sub-arrays of tissue samples;
- information data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium to align adjacent image tiles into a composite image of the microarray of samples;
- quantitative analysis data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for the tissue samples of the microarray;
- and
- identification data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for each of the tissue samples in the microarray to allow retrieval of the quantitative analysis data and retrieval of a specifically identified tissue sample image for display.
A data structure for a microarray of tissue sample images and identification information for each of the tissue samples in the microarray comprising:
- low magnification, image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for adjacent tiles of sub-arrays of tissue samples;
- information data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium to align adjacent image tiles into a composite image of the microarray of samples;
- quantitative analysis data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for the tissue samples of the microarray;
- identification data for each of the tissue samples in the microarray to allow retrieval of the quantitative analysis data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and retrieval of a specifically identified tissue sample image for display;
- and
- high magnification image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and comprising image tile data for adjacent fields of view images for each tissue sample.
A data structure for a microarray of tissue sample images and identification information for each of the tissue samples in the microarray comprising:
- low magnification, image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for adjacent tiles of sub-arrays of tissue samples;
- information data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium to align adjacent image tiles into a composite image of the microarray of samples;
- quantitative analysis data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for the tissue samples of the microarray;
- identification data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for each of the tissue samples in the microarray to allow retrieval of the quantitative analysis data and retrieval of a specifically identified tissue sample image for display;
- high magnification image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for displaying high magnification from the tissue samples;
- and
- data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium associating the low magnification image data of a tissue sample with the high magnification image data for displaying a high magnification view from a portion of a tissue sample being displayed at low magnification.
A data structure for a microarray of tissue sample images and identification information for each of the tissue samples in the microarray comprising:
- low magnification, image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for adjacent tiles of sub-arrays of tissue samples;
- information data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium to align adjacent image tiles into a composite image of the microarray of samples;
- quantitative analysis data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for the tissue samples of the microarray;
- identification data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for each of the tissue samples in the microarray to allow retrieval of the quantitative analysis data and retrieval of a specifically identified tissue sample image for display;
- high magnification image data being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for displaying high magnification from the tissue samples;
- and
- stored data information being embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for use in remote manipulation into view of both the high magnification and low magnification images for a tissue sample selected.
An apparatus for producing a low magnification image of a microarray of tissue samples and high magnification images of adjacent portions within each tissue sample, comprising:
- a microscope for carrying a microscope slide having a microarray of tissue samples;
- an imager connected to the microscope to acquire magnified images of the microarray and of the tissue samples;
- a display connected to the imager for displaying tissue sample images;
- a processor coupled to the imager and operable in a first mode to acquire a low magnification image of the microarray;
- the processor being operable in a second mode to cooperate with the imager to acquire high magnification images of tissue samples displayed at low magnification;
- and
- the processor being operable in a third mode for indexing a tissue sample image with a tissue sample in the microarray.
A method of analyzing tissue dots arranged in columns and rows in a microarray on a microscope slide, the method comprising:
- scanning the microarray of tissue dots and providing magnified images of the microarray with the tissue dots in their respective columns and rows within the microarray;
- identifying each of the tissue dot images with respect to its row and column position of the tissue dot within the microarray;
- performing an analysis of a respective magnified image of a tissue dot;
- associate each analysis with each identified tissue dot to allow a later review of a tissue dot image and its analysis from the microarray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.