Progress report of the TUDAB project for automated cancer cell detection

Two methods for high resolution cell image data acquisition are applied routinely. Cells are either scanned by a computer controlled fast scanning microscope photometer (SMP) or a TV-camera. The software system for digital image analysis was completely revised and implemented on the PR 330 minicomputer. The system contains codes for primary cell data acquisition, segmentation of cells, cell feature extraction and statistical cell analysis. With this system, SMP and TV scanned cell data bases of PAP stained cells in vaginal smears, grouped into several classes, have been built up. Each data base contains 34 primary features and 20 feature combinations for each cell. A linear discriminant analysis is applied routinely for cell classification. The present state of the system and its operation are described, cell features and classification results are shown, and future steps for a prescreening strategy are discussed.