This research is supported in part by grants from National Institute of Health K25CA181503, National Science Foundation ACI 1443054 and IIS 1350885, and CNPq.
Keywords:
Science & Technology
Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Engineering
Whole Slide Image Analysis
3D Vessel Analysis
Vessel Reconstruction
Digital Pathology
Liver Whole Slide Image Analysis for 3D Vessel Reconstruction
Yanhui Liang, Emory University
Fusheng Wang, Emory University
Darren Treanor, Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine
The emergence of digital pathology has enabled numerous quantitative analyses of histopathology structures. However, most pathology image analyses are limited to two-dimensional datasets, resulting in substantial information loss and incomplete interpretation. To address this, we have developed a complete framework for three-dimensional whole slide image analysis and demonstrated its efficacy on 3D vessel structure analysis with liver tissue sections. The proposed workflow includes components on image registration, vessel segmentation, vessel cross-section association, object interpolation, and volumetric rendering. For 3D vessel reconstruction, a cost function is formulated based on shape descriptors, spatial similarity and trajectory smoothness by taking into account four vessel association scenarios. An efficient entropy-based Relaxed Integer Programming (eRIP) method is proposed to identify the optimal inter-frame vessel associations. The reconstructed 3D vessels are both quantitatively and qualitatively validated. Evaluation results demonstrate high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method, suggesting its promise to support further 3D vessel analysis with whole slide images.