The combination of fluorescent contrast agents with microscopy is a powerful technique to obtain real time images of tissue histology without the need for fixing, sectioning, and staining. The potential of this technology lies in the identification of robust methods for image segmentation and quantitation, particularly in heterogeneous tissues. Our solution is to apply sparse decomposition (SD) to monochrome images of fluorescently-stained microanatomy to segment and quantify distinct tissue types. The clinical utility of our approach is demonstrated by imaging excised margins in a cohort of mice after surgical resection of a sarcoma. Representative images of excised margins were used to optimize the formulation of SD and tune parameters associated with the algorithm. Our results demonstrate that SD is a robust solution that can advance vital fluorescence microscopy as a clinically significant technology.

Date Published: 22 February 2013
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 8587, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XI, 85871F (22 February 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2006429

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8587:
Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XI
Daniel L. Farkas; Dan V. Nicolau; Robert C. Leif, Editor(s)