Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for determining a proliferation index of a cell sample

US5086476A · kind A · utility

38Cited by
43References
7Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 24, 1989
Grant dateFeb 4, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 24, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01N2201/127
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An image processing method and apparatus determines a proliferation index of a cell sample by staining the cells with a chromogen for a proliferation substance and a counterstain for the cell nuclei. The chromogen is activated by an antibody-enzyme conjugate which binds to the proliferation substance to produce a stained cell sample. The stained cell sample is examined with an optical microscope, forming a portion of the apparatus, which produces a magnified cell sample image. The apparatus optically filters the cell sample image and produces a pair of optically enhanced proliferation substance and cell nuclei images. The enhanced images are electronically analyzed to determine the amounts of cell nuclei and proliferation substance appearing in the images, respectively. The amounts are then compared to yield a proliferation index for the portion of the cell sample appearing in the cell sample image.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.