Digital Picture Analysis as an Integral Part of the Information System for Experimental Oncopathology of the German Cancer Research Center^[*)]

The information system of experimental pathology of the German Cancer Research Center serves to evaluate substantial amounts of data from animal experiments and to utilize the results in the study of the etiology, pathogenesis and therapy of experimental cancer. The system includes a registry of experimental tumors and programs for computer-supported diagnostics and digital picture analysis.

The purpose of the digital picture analysis program is to obtain objective data in a form allowing comparisons. The aims of the program are to characterize early stages of pathological processes, to provide quantitatively defined subclasses of tumors which are related to their biology and to identify morphological features important for the diagnosis and prognosis of tumors. Because there are specific problems in digital analysis of histological sections, the authors modified the techniques of general purpose digital picture analysis and developed new methods. These utilize segmentation based on dividing images into segments or transforming the images into a polar-coordinate system, structural analysis of chromatin, and three-dimensional analysis of the images of cell nuclei.

Das Informationssystem der experimentellen Pathologie des Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrums hat die Aufgabe, die zahlreichen Daten der Tierexperimente auszuwerten und die gewonnenen Ergebnisse für Studien über Ätiologie, Pathogenese und Therapie des experimentellen Krebses zu verwerten. Das System umfaßt das Register der experimentellen Tumoren sowie Programme für rechnerunterstützte Diagnostik und digitale Bildverarbeitung.

Das Programm für digitale Bildverarbeitung entspricht den Forderungen der experimentellen Pathologie nach objektiven Daten von pathologischen Befunden, die einen Vergleich erlauben. Die Aufgaben des Programms sind: Objektive Charakterisierung der Anfangsstadien der pathologischen Prozesse; Einführung von biologisch relevanten und durch quantitative Daten definierten Subformen der Tumoren; Beschreibung von morphologischen Merkmalen, die von Bedeutung für die Diagnose und die Prognose der Tumoren sind. Die digitale Analyse an histologischen Schnitten ist verbunden mit verschiedenen spezifischen Problemen. Zur Lösung dieser Probleme haben die Autoren neue Methoden entwickelt, z.B. für die Segmentierung der Objekte durch Aufteilung in Segmente oder Transformation in das Polar-Koordinaten-System, für die Analyse der Chromatin-Struktur und für die dreidimensionale Auswertung der Bilder von Zellkernen.

Key-Words

Digital Picture Analysis - Information System - Experimental Pathology - Quantitative Description - Histological Images

Schlüssel-Wörter

Digitale Bildauswertung - Informationssystem - experimentelle Pathologie - quantitative Beschreibung histologischer Bilder

^*) Dedicated to Professor Dr. Otto Westphal in celebration of his 70th birthday.

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