JPH03291565A - Detection and detector of mitotic metaphase cell - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify the algorithm of metaphase detection to enhance versatility and to allow the use of general image processors by subjecting the image of the diffusion and culture sample of chromosome to binarization processing to discriminate the sample cell and a back ground. CONSTITUTION:The diffusion and culture sample of the chromosome is scanned in X-Y directions by a microscope 1 and the image data thereof is taken out. The image processor 3 discriminates the sample cell and the background by subjecting the image of the diffusion and culture sample of the chromosome to the binarization processing by the instruction of a host computer 5 and removes the cells exclusive of the mitotic metaphase cells by removing the parts larger than a prescribed area from the binarized images of the sample cell, thereby extracting the images relating to the mitotic metaphase cells. The images extracted in such a manner are further subjected to expansion processing by as much as an arbitrary number of times and the parts smaller than the prescribed area are taken out of the images subjected to the expansion processing, by which the mitotic metaphase cells are detected.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to the detection of metaphase cells (hereinafter referred to as "metaphase") from cells on a chromosome spread culture specimen in chromosome testing. The present invention relates to a method for detecting metaphase cells and a device for detecting the same.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional chromosome testing, an operator observes a chromosome spread culture specimen under a microscope and detects metaphases among the many cells on the specimen, which places a heavy burden on the operator and requires processing a large number of specimens. It was an extremely difficult task to do.

On the other hand, with recent advances in computer-related technology, systems have been developed in which work related to chromosome testing is automatically performed by computers.

For example, Published Patent Publication No. 62-502778 states,
A chromosome analysis system is described that processes a microscopic image of a chromosome spread culture specimen, detects metaphase spread culture, and displays the karyotype on a monitor in a computer interactive format.

Also, “Clinical Examination VOL, 28 no. 7 (1984
July 2018 Automatic Chromosome Classification Technology describes technical means such as line-scanning a specimen to capture digital image signals, setting a threshold to separate the background from the chromosomes, and detecting the contours of the chromosomes. There is.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the past, the only equipment that could automatically perform chromosome testing as described above was dedicated hardware, so it was necessary to specially prepare such dedicated hardware. Moreover, a dedicated program is also required to operate the dedicated device.

Further, as for hardware such as an image processing device, there is only a device equipped with a special function for metaphase detection, and conventional image processing devices and the like cannot be used. As a result, automating chromosome testing requires specialized hardware and software.
There was a problem in that it required a very large cost and was extremely uneconomical.

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and the metaphase detection algorithm is simple and highly versatile.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for detecting metaphase cells that can use a general image processing device and reduce costs, and a device for detecting the same.

[Means and effects for solving the problem] The present invention scans a chromosome diffusion culture specimen in the X and Y directions to extract image data, and performs image processing on the extracted image data.
In the metaphase cell detection method or apparatus for detecting only metaphase cells from the chromosome diffusion culture specimen, the image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen is binarized to distinguish the sample cells from the background; Cells other than the metaphase cells are removed by removing a portion larger than a predetermined area from the binarized image of the sample cell obtained by the binarization process, and an image related to the metaphase cell is extracted. .

After further expanding the image extracted in this way an arbitrary number of times, the portion of the expanded image smaller than a predetermined area was removed to detect metaphase cells.

According to the present invention, metaphase detection can be performed using the functions provided in general image processing apparatuses as described above.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a metaphase detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment includes a microscope 1 for observing a chromosome diffusion culture specimen placed on an XY stage, a TV camera 2 for converting an image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen observed with this microscope 1 into an image signal, and an image processing device 3 that performs image processing on the output of the TV camera 2;
It is comprised of a monitor 4 that displays the results of image processing by the image processing device 3, and a host computer 5 that sets various conditions for metaphase detection processing and controls the operation of the entire device.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the metaphase detection operation of this embodiment. The metaphase detection operation according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to this flowchart.

First, a chromosome diffusion culture specimen is set on the XY stage of the microscope 1. Next, search conditions such as the type of specimen, the target number of detected metaphases, and the specimen scanning method are input to the host computer 5.

The host computer 5 sets the conditions for metaphase detection (first and second area values serving as thresholds when detecting a metaphase, the number of times of fat-swelling treatment, and - times of operation) based on the input detection conditions. (scanning range) and detection operation termination conditions. Next, the XY stage of the microscope 1 is scanned in the XY direction according to a command from the host computer 5.
An image of a chromosome diffusion culture specimen obtained with a microscope 1 is converted into an image signal by a TV camera 2 and is taken into an image processing device 3. When capturing this image, if the microscope 1 is not focused on the chromosome diffusion culture specimen, a focusing process is performed according to a command from the host computer 5. In this manner, an image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen is captured into the image processing device 3.

The image processing device 3 operates based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 in response to instructions from the host computer 5 to perform metaphase detection. That is, for example, if an image like the one shown in Figure 4(a) is captured as an image of a chromosome diffusion culture specimen, the image is binarized, and the part where cells are present is "1" and the background is "1". The part is designated as rOJ,
Cells and background are separated. Next, in order to remove cells other than the metaphase from the image of the cell part obtained by this binarization process, cells larger than the first area value determined by the above condition settings are removed (fourth Figure (b)
). Next, the expansion process is performed the number of times determined by the above condition settings to emphasize the metaphase part (fourth
Figure (C)). Then, in order to remove noise portions from the image obtained by this expansion process, portions smaller than the second area value are removed (FIG. 4(d)).

As a result of the above processing, the information remaining in the image is recognized as a metaphase.

Once the existence of a metaphase is recognized through the above image processing, the XY coordinate values with the center coordinates of the recognized metaphase on the specimen as the center of gravity, the image data of that metaphase, and the focus position of the microscope 1 are The information is stored in a storage device or a storage section provided within the image processing device 3. The number of metaphases detected in this manner is sequentially counted, and the above process is repeated until the total number of detected metaphases reaches a set number or until the entire area of the sample has been scanned.

When the above metaphase detection processing is completed, the detection results are displayed. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the screen of the monitor 4 is divided into 5-25 parts vertically and 5-25 times horizontally, and each of the detected and stored images of a plurality of metaphases is displayed on the divided screen. to display multiple metaphases on one screen at once. Note that if all of the detected metaphases cannot be displayed on one screen (25 areas), the display contents are switched and displayed multiple times at once.

Then, when the observer selects a metaphase that he/she wishes to observe in particular detail from among the multiple metaphases that are collectively displayed, the host computer 5 uses the XY coordinate position and focus position of that metaphase stored during the metaphase detection process. Based on this, a command is given to the microscope 1 to move the XY stage and adjust the focus, and the selected metaphase image is displayed on the monitor 4. The observer performs detailed observation by changing the magnification of the microscope.

In addition, in this example, the first and second conditions, which are the setting conditions, are
The area value, the number of fat-bloating treatments, the magnification of the microscope 1, and the scanning range of the specimen are determined depending on the type of specimen.

For example, when applying this example to a Giemsa-stained specimen of hamster kidney fibroblasts, - the first area value for cell killing removal is 100 μm, the number of expansions is 8
times, the second area value for noise removal is 1000 μm1
The magnification of the objective lens of the microscope 1 is set to 10 times.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the sample image is binarized,
From this binarized image, cells larger than the first area value set to a larger area than the metaphase image are removed,
This image is expanded an arbitrary number of times to emphasize the metaphase part, and the remaining part is removed by removing the part smaller than the second area value set to a value smaller than the area of this emphasized metaphase. Since images are detected as metaphases, metaphases can be detected using such an extremely simple algorithm, and metaphases can be detected in the same way as conventional methods using the image processing functions of general image processing devices. . Therefore, there is no need for dedicated hardware for metaphase detection, and a general image processing device can be used as is, resulting in cost reduction.

In addition, the image data of each detected metaphase,
Since the Y coordinate 1 focusing information is stored and multiple detected metaphases are displayed all at once on the monitor 4, it is possible to relatively compare a large number of metaphases, and select the desired metaphase. Only the phases can be extracted and inspected in detail, thereby significantly reducing the burden on the observer and improving inspection ability.

Furthermore, by changing conditions such as the first and second area values, the number of fat-bloating treatments, the magnification of the microscope 1, and the scanning range of the specimen, it can be applied to various chromosome specimens.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, according to the present invention, the metaphase detection algorithm is extremely simple, is highly versatile, can use general image processing equipment, and is a method for detecting metaphase cells that can reduce costs. and its detection device.

Further, according to the present invention, since a plurality of detected metaphases are displayed at once, the burden on the observer can be significantly reduced and the inspection ability can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a metaphase detection device that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the metaphase detection operation of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing metaphase detection processing. , FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the image state at each step of the metaphase detection process, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the batch display screen of the monitor. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Microscope, 2...TV camera, 3...Image processing device, 4...Monitor, 5...Host computer.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) Scanning a chromosome diffusion culture specimen in the XY direction to extract its image data, image processing the extracted image data, and detecting only metaphase cells from the chromosome diffusion culture specimen. The detection method includes a step of binarizing the image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen to distinguish sample cells from the background, and a step of binarizing the image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen, and selecting a predetermined value from among the binarized images obtained by the binarizing process in this step. a step of removing cells other than the metaphase cells by removing a portion larger than the area of the cell; a step of expanding the image of the metaphase cells obtained by this step an arbitrary number of times; A method for detecting metaphase cells, comprising: detecting metaphase cells by removing a portion smaller than a predetermined area from the expanded image. (2) A chromosome diffusion culture specimen set on a stage is photographed using a photographing optical system, the stage is scanned in the XY direction, an image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen is captured into an image processing device, and the captured image is In a metaphase cell detection device that detects only metaphase cells from the chromosome diffusion culture specimen through image processing, the image of the chromosome diffusion culture specimen taken into the image processing device is converted into a binarized image. means for removing a portion larger than a predetermined area from the binarized image to remove portions of cells other than the metaphase cells; and an image of the metaphase cells obtained by this means. A metaphase cell characterized by comprising: means for performing expansion processing an arbitrary number of times; and means for detecting metaphase cells by removing a portion smaller than a predetermined area from an image expanded by this means. detection device. (3) The metaphase cell detection device according to claim 2, further comprising a storage means for storing the coordinate position and image data of the detected metaphase cell on the chromosome diffusion culture specimen. (4) The metaphase cell according to claim 2, wherein at least processing related to the amount of movement of the stage in the X and Y directions, focus adjustment of the photographing optical system, and detection of the metaphase cell is controlled by an external device. detection device. (5) The device for detecting metaphase cells according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of detection results by the means for detecting metaphase cells are displayed separately on a monitor.