Apparatus for the identification of free-lying cells

US5978497A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Neopath, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Shih-Jong J. Lee · Bellevue, US
• Paul S. Wilhelm · Kirkland, US
• Wendy R. Bannister · Burlington, US
• Chih-Chau L. Kuan · Redmond, US
• Seho Oh · Mukilteo, US
• Michael Meyer · Aachen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 20, 1994
• Grant date: Nov 2, 1999
• Expiry date: Sep 20, 2014

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N15/1433
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A free-lying cell classifier. An automated microscope system comprising a computer and high speed processing field of view processors identifies free-lying cells. An image of a biological specimen is obtained and the image is segmented to create a set of binary masks. The binary masks are used by a feature calculator to compute the features that characterize objects of interest including free-lying cells, artifacts and other biological objects. The objects are classified to identify their type, their normality or abnormality or their identification as an artifact. The results are summarized and reported. A stain evaluation of the slide is performed as well as a typicality evaluation. The robustness of the measurement is also quantified as a classification confidence value. The free-lying cell evaluation is used by an automated cytology system to classify a biological specimen slide.