KR102288332B1 - Bone marrow imaging method using bone marrow interpretation - Google Patents

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an analysis method of a bone marrow image that can promote accuracy and convenience according to automatic counting of a bone marrow image analyzer that automatically classifies (or discriminates) bone marrow cells, and prevents an error in the differentiation result, and An imaging method can be provided. To this end, in particular, an embodiment of the present invention provides a step of preparing a bone marrow smear for smearing and staining the bone marrow on a slide (S10); A low magnification imaging step of imaging the bone marrow smear as a low magnification sample image (S20); A cell selection step (S30) of selecting a preset number of single cells based on an image processing algorithm in a low-magnification sample image; an imaging path calculation step of calculating imaging paths of the selected single cells based on the priority and the shortest path of the selected single cells (S40); and a cell imaging step of capturing a high magnification cell image of each of the single cells selected for the bone marrow smear based on the calculated imaging paths, and a path image capturing step of capturing one or more pathological images located in the imaging paths includes a bone marrow cell image imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer including a high magnification image imaging step (S50) that is alternately performed.

Description

Bone marrow cell imaging method using bone marrow image analyzer {BONE MARROW IMAGING METHOD USING BONE MARROW INTERPRETATION}

The present invention relates to a method for analyzing and imaging a bone marrow image provided for reading a bone marrow test result.

Accurate classification (or differentiation) of bone marrow cells is very important to read bone marrow test results. This is to classify which cells each bone marrow cell is and to display the distribution as a percentage. Currently, doctors look at and count microscopically stained bone marrow smear slides (or bone marrow smears).

Recently, with the development of image analysis technology, a technology for classifying a cell type by capturing an enlarged image by a device and analyzing the image with an algorithm is being introduced. This technology has already been commercialized for sorting blood cells in the blood.

The bone marrow is a place where the progenitor cells that are maturing into blood cells are located, and it is an organ where various abnormalities occur in various blood diseases. A bone marrow test is performed for the diagnosis of these diseases. The bone marrow slide produced at this time has similarities to the blood slide, but is a liquid sample through which blood flows, whereas the bone marrow is a tissue, so there are many tissue masses and the smear is made thick. Since the number of nucleated cells in the bone marrow is enormous compared to the white blood cells in the blood, it is very common for cells to contact each other. In order to sort cells by image analysis technology, it is essential that the cells are well separated. However, if only cells that are well separated from each other are included in the discrimination, a large number of cell populations with characteristics that are not easily separated are excluded, and there is a high risk of reporting inaccurate discrimination results.

Therefore, in introducing a bone marrow image analyzer that analyzes a bone marrow image through imaging and processing of a bone marrow specimen, there is a need for an image imaging method that can prevent errors in discrimination results while promoting accuracy and convenience according to automatic counting. do.

The present invention has been derived based on the above needs, and a first object of the present invention is to provide an analysis method and an imaging method of a bone marrow image capable of automatically classifying (or discriminating) accurate bone marrow cells to read bone marrow test results. is to do

A second object of the present invention is to promote the accuracy and convenience according to the automatic counting of the bone marrow image analyzer for automatically classifying (or discriminating) bone marrow cells, and to prevent errors in the differentiation result. to provide a way.

A third object of the present invention is to use a bone marrow image analyzer that can calculate and report the percentage of 19 cell types by finding only the cells plated with one or two attached to the slide, and taking high-magnification images with optical magnification. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for analyzing and imaging a bone marrow cell image.

The object of the present invention as described above, the preparation step of the bone marrow smear for smearing and staining the bone marrow on a slide (S10); A low magnification imaging step of imaging the bone marrow smear as a low magnification sample image (S20); A cell selection step (S30) of selecting a preset number of single cells based on an image processing algorithm in a low-magnification sample image; an imaging path calculation step of calculating imaging paths of the selected single cells based on the priority and the shortest path of the selected single cells (S40); and a cell imaging step of capturing a high-magnification cell image of each of the single cells selected for the bone marrow smear based on the calculated imaging pathways, and a pathway imaging step of imaging one or more pathway images located in the imaging pathways. It can be achieved by providing a bone marrow cell image imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer comprising a high magnification image imaging step (S50) that is alternately performed.

Here, the single cell means an ideal cell that does not significantly affect diagnosis or damage the state of a cell, even if it is normal or abnormal.

The bone marrow cell image imaging method using the bone marrow image analyzer, after the high magnification image imaging step (S50)), separates the high magnification cell images and one or more path-path images captured in two different image storages. A storage step (S60) may be further included.

And the cell selection step (S30) may be a step of selecting based on the independence of single cells with respect to the low-magnification sample image. Herein, the independence of a single cell means that each cell is independent in spatial arrangement or the state is not damaged even when two cells are attached.

In addition, the imaging path calculation step (S40) may include: determining the imaging priority of single cells (S42); and calculating the shortest imaging path of single cells according to imaging priority ( S44 ).

The one or more captured path-on images may be indexed corresponding to the captured high-magnification cell images based on the imaging priority. In this indexing, all images on the slide in the middle moving to the next cell are taken as a series after taking an image of one cell, and the path is indexed in the corresponding image file. and confirm.

The bone marrow cell image imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer further includes a step (S70) of calculating the percentage of cells based on a high magnification cell image of selected single cells and an image on one or more pathways after the image separation and storage step (S60). may include

According to one embodiment of the present invention as described above, it is possible to automatically classify (or discriminate) the correct bone marrow cells for reading the bone marrow test result.

And it is possible to provide an analysis method and an imaging method of a bone marrow image that can promote accuracy and convenience according to the automatic counting of the bone marrow image analyzer for automatically classifying (or discriminating) bone marrow cells, and preventing errors in the differentiation result.

In addition, it is possible to calculate and report the percentage of 19 cell types by finding only the smeared cells with one or two attached to the slide, and then taking high-magnification images with optical magnification.

In particular, in the process of imaging a specified number of bone marrow cells at high magnification, images of cells that were excluded because a large number of cells are attached to each other are provided separately so that the observer can decide whether to include them in the discrimination results and make corrections, resulting in accurate bone marrow cell discrimination results has the effect of obtaining

1 is a flowchart sequentially showing an embodiment according to the method for imaging bone marrow cells using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention;
2 is a flowchart specifically showing the high magnification image capturing step of an embodiment according to the bone marrow cell image capturing method using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a view showing the bone marrow image sample of the high magnification image capturing step of the bone marrow cell imaging method using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and the contents described in the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited or limited by the embodiments.

Various modifications may be made to the embodiments described below. It should be understood that the embodiments described below are not intended to limit the embodiments, and include all modifications, equivalents or substitutes thereto.

Meanwhile, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. And, the terms (terminology) used in this specification are terms used to properly express the embodiment of the present invention, which may vary according to the intention of the user or operator, or customs in the field to which the present invention belongs. Accordingly, definitions of these terms should be made based on the content throughout this specification.

Bone marrow cell imaging method using bone marrow image analyzer

Bone marrow is a soft tissue located in the inner space of the bone and is a hematopoietic organ that produces blood cells such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. In addition, if there is a problem in the production of blood cells in the human body, bone marrow aspirate and biopsy the bone marrow from a large bone, make a slide, and if necessary, stain the bone marrow, observe the bone marrow cells through a microscope and perform differential calculations to determine the function of the bone marrow and It is a test to check for abnormal lesions. These bone marrow tests are used as data for diagnosis based on normal or abnormal white blood cell counts, whether there are abnormal white blood cells that should not be present, or other leukemia diagnosis.

This bone marrow examination or bone marrow reading process takes a long time because several parts of the slide must be observed at high magnification and is a task accompanied by fatigue of the diagnostician (or analyst). Moreover, the manual operation of finding all the white blood cells present in the bone marrow sample image, determining the type of each white blood cell, and counting the number of each type of white blood cell takes a lot of time and is highly likely to have low accuracy depending on the experience level of the diagnostician.

Meanwhile, the diagnostic laboratory selects a certain number of single cells to observe the bone marrow specimen in order to increase the efficiency and accuracy of bone marrow reading. Single cells refer to ideal cells suitable for viewing and reading slide specimens at high magnification. That is, the selected single cells can be defined as highly reliable cells that can ensure the accuracy of bone marrow readings.

Bone marrow readout utilizes images obtained from bone marrow specimen slides that have undergone smearing and staining processes, and all regions of the slide specimen are reliable regions due to differences in the spread thickness and uniformity of specimens depending on the smear, and the inability to be stained singly. This cannot be Therefore, when all areas are arbitrarily observed at high magnification, the probability of reading failure is high, and repeated reading failures inevitably lead to reduced work efficiency and long hours of labor. Therefore, diagnostic testers with high experience and skill are reliably observing and reading a limited number of single cells.

However, there is still a problem that the conventional manual selection of single cells and thus bone marrow readout entails reduced work efficiency and long hours of labor for diagnosticians with low experience and skill. According to apprenticeship education, a method of raising the level of low-skilled diagnosticians is used, but it takes a lot of time and involves trial and error.

Moreover, even for a diagnostician with high experience and skill, the method of selecting single cells has the disadvantage that it is difficult to achieve consistency because it involves the subjective judgment of a person, and it can lead to different reading results depending on the diagnostician. Therefore, studies on automatic detection of single cells through image processing and analysis of bone marrow specimen slides (or bone marrow smears) are being conducted.

Bone marrow image analyzer used in an embodiment of the present invention, low magnification image imaging of the bone marrow smear, analysis and processing of the captured low magnification image, and automatic detection of a limited number of single cells accordingly, and automatically detected single cells It refers to a device capable of performing a series of functions of high magnification image capturing.

Therefore, the bone marrow image analyzer used in this embodiment basically includes an image sensor (not shown) capable of imaging at low magnification and high magnification, and an imaging driver (not shown) that moves such an image sensor to an accurate imaging position on the bone marrow smear. And, it may include software having an algorithm for selecting single cells by processing and analyzing the low magnification image of the bone marrow smear, and other components may be added or modified in various forms.

1 is a flowchart sequentially showing an embodiment according to the bone marrow cell image imaging method using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention. Hereinafter, the bone marrow cell imaging method of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1 .

First, a bone marrow smear is prepared for smearing and staining the bone marrow on a slide (S10).

Next, a low magnification imaging step (S20) of imaging the bone marrow smear as a low magnification sample image is performed.

Next, a cell selection step (S30) of selecting a preset number of single cells from the low magnification sample image based on the image processing algorithm is performed. Here, the single cell means an ideal cell that does not significantly affect diagnosis or damage the state of a cell, even if it is normal or abnormal. That is, each cell is selected based on the independence of single cells in which the state is not damaged even if each cell is independent in spatial arrangement or when two cells are attached.

Next, an imaging path calculation step (S40) of calculating imaging paths for the selected single cells based on the imaging priority and the shortest path is performed.

Here, the step of calculating the imaging path ( S40 ) may include the step of determining the imaging priority of single cells ( S42 ) and the step of calculating the shortest imaging path of the single cells according to the imaging priority ( S44 ).

In the step of determining the imaging priority ( S42 ), it is preferable that the shortest imaging path is configured such that the paths do not intersect or overlap each other.

Next, a cell imaging step of capturing high-magnification cell images of each single cell selected with respect to the bone marrow smear based on the calculated imaging paths, and path imaging of capturing one or more pathological images located in the imaging paths A high magnification image capturing step S50 in which steps are alternately performed is performed.

The high magnification image capturing step ( S50 ) will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 . Here, Figure 2 is a flowchart specifically showing the high magnification image imaging step of an embodiment according to the bone marrow cell imaging method using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a high magnification of the bone marrow cell imaging method using the bone marrow image analyzer of the present invention. It is a diagram showing the imaging steps on a bone marrow image specimen.

In the high magnification image capturing step (S50), as shown in FIG. 2 , a single cell imaging step and an on-path image capturing step of capturing one or more path-path images located in each of the single cell imaging paths are alternately performed. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, P1, P2 ... Single cells having the same imaging priority as Pn are imaged based on the priority information and imaging movement path information. In the captured high magnification image, T0 and T3 become high magnification images of a single cell, and T1 and T2 on the path move It becomes an image on the path of the path. Therefore, the single cell high magnification image and the path image are not captured separately, but the single cell image capturing step and the path image capturing step according to the imaging priority are alternately performed.

On the other hand, after the high magnification image capturing step (S50), the image separation and storage step (S60) of separately storing the captured high magnification cell images and the captured one or more path-path images in two different image storages may be further included. This is for the need for cellular images to be in the hundreds and for diagnosticians to view multiple images in isolation.

The one or more captured path-on images may be indexed corresponding to the captured high-magnification cell images based on the imaging priority. In this indexing, all images on the slide in the middle moving to the next cell are taken as a series after taking an image of one cell, and the path is indexed in the corresponding image file. and confirm.

After the image separation and storage step (S60), the bone marrow cell image imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer further includes a step (S70) of calculating the percentage of cells based on the selected single cells high-magnification cell image and one or more pathway images. may include

In particular, acquiring images along one or more pathways and providing them with high magnification images of single cells may have the following advantages.

The bone marrow image analyzer captures a sample that has been smeared and stained, processes the captured sample image to select a predetermined number of bone marrow cells, and captures the bone marrow cells selected in this way with a high magnification image to determine the diagnosis by a specialist. The focus is on serving the role that makes it possible.

Therefore, according to the single cell selection algorithm of the bone marrow image analyzer, unlike peripheral blood, the selected bone marrow cells contain a lot of tissue mass and there are many touching cells (cells attached to each other), so these various cells are excluded and separated from each other. It is configured to select cells that are spaced apart.

However, since the percentage of cells constituting the bone marrow can affect the diagnosis result, deriving a diagnosis result using only selected bone marrow cells has a problem that may lead to a diagnosis error. For example, in cases where erythroblasts are a problem, i.e., the blasts that become granulocytes tend to exist independently and do not stick between cells, and the blasts that become erythrocytes tend to stick between cells (which will become sticky due to plasma proteins). As a result of the bone marrow image analyzer excluding the lumped cells, the selected bone marrow cells are judged to have a low me ratio, so it may be read as anemia that makes red blood cells wrong. In addition, the percentage of bad cells, such as blasts of leukemia cells, can also be read as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes at certain levels.

Therefore, if one or more images are captured and provided in a single cell imaging path, there is an advantage in that such a diagnosis error of the bone marrow image analyzer can be minimized.

In this embodiment, in order to minimize the imaging time, the imaging path is determined by algorithmically determining the shortest path between the selected bone marrow cells. desirable. In addition, since one or more images on the path are displayed as multi-images adjacent to each other, it is possible to faithfully play an auxiliary role in the reading result of a specialist.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, the technical configuration of the present invention described above is another specific form for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. It will be understood that it can be implemented as Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are illustrative in all respects and not restrictive. In addition, the scope of the present invention is indicated by the following claims rather than the above detailed description. In addition, all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

P1: first imaging priority cell
P2: second imaging priority cell
Pn: nth imaging priority cell
T0: Image taken with the center of the P1 cell location
T1: On the trajectory from P1 to P2, the first auxiliary image
T2: On the trajectory from P2 to P3, the first auxiliary image
T3: Image taken with the center of the P2 cell location

Claims (6)

Preparing a bone marrow smear for smearing and staining the bone marrow on a slide (S10);
A low magnification imaging step of imaging the bone marrow smear as a low magnification sample image (S20);
a cell selection step (S30) of selecting a preset number of single cells from the low-magnification sample image based on an image processing algorithm;
an imaging path calculation step of calculating imaging paths of the selected single cells based on the priority and the shortest path of the selected single cells (S40);
A cell imaging step of capturing a high-magnification cell image of each of the selected single cells with respect to the bone marrow smear based on the calculated imaging paths, and a path image of capturing one or more pathological images located in the imaging paths a high-magnification image capturing step (S50) in which the image capturing steps are alternately performed; and
and an image separation and storage step (S60) of separately storing the captured high magnification cell images and the captured one or more path-path images in two different image storages,
The cell selection step (S30) is a step of selecting based on the independence of the single cells with respect to the low magnification sample image,
The imaging path calculation step (S40) is,
determining the imaging priority of the single cells (S42); and
Bone marrow cell imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer comprising the step (S44) of calculating the shortest imaging path of the single cells according to the imaging priority.
delete delete delete According to claim 1,
Bone marrow cell image imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer, characterized in that the one or more captured pathway images are indexed corresponding to the high magnification cell images.
According to claim 1,
After the image separation and storage step (S60),
Bone marrow cell imaging method using a bone marrow image analyzer further comprising the step (S70) of calculating the percentage of cells based on the selected high magnification cell image of the single cells and the one or more pathway images.

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