ViCE: An automated and quantitative program to assess intestinal tissue morphology.

Area of Science:

• Histopathology
• Computational Biology
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• Intestinal villi and crypts form complex tissue morphology.
• Villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (Vh:Cd) quantifies intestinal enteropathy severity.
• Manual Vh:Cd measurement is time-consuming, limiting clinical application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated software, ViCE (Villus Crypt Evaluator), for quantifying Vh:Cd.
• To provide a user-friendly tool for histological parameter assessment in intestinal biopsies.

Main Methods:

• ViCE utilizes mathematical morphology operations.
• The software is scale and staining agnostic.
• It evaluates tissue orientation, identifies geometrical structures, and measures key parameters.

Main Results:

• ViCE automatically quantifies Vh:Cd in hematoxylin and eosin-stained intestinal biopsies.
• Output measurements demonstrate concordance with manual quantifications across datasets.

Conclusions:

• The mathematical morphological approach of ViCE is robust and reproducible.
• ViCE is adaptable for measuring morphological features in other tissues.
• Automated Vh:Cd quantification can enhance clinical practice for intestinal diseases.