Analysis of stained objects in histological sections by spectral imaging and differential absorption

We describe a new light microscopic imaging system and method to perform high through put color image analysis on histological tissue sections. The system features a computer-controlled, random-access liquid crystal tunable filter and high-resolution digital camera on a conventional brightfield microscope. For any combination of stains, the method determines the spectral transmittance of each stain on the slide and selects two or more wavelengths at which the differential absorption between stain and counterstain is greatest and the exposure time is reasonably short. Flatfield corrected digital images at these wavelengths are acquired and divided to produce a gray scale ratio image. The ratio image is calculated such that the stained features of interest are highlighted above a uniform background and the counterstained features are highlighted below background. Image threshold procedures using either visual inspection or a threshold value determined by the image mean intensity and standard deviation are used to segment the stained features of interest for subsequent morphometry. Results are presented for peroxidase-AEC-labeled tumor tissue and trichrome-stained biomaterial implant tissues. In principle, the method should work for any combination of colored stains. (J Histochem Cytochem 47:1307-1313, 1999)