A microspectrophotometric study of Papanicolaou-stained cervical cells as an aid in computerized image processing

As part of a study of cytologic automation, microspectrophotometric investigation of Papanicolaou-stained cervical cells was performed, using a Leitz MPV-II scanning photometer connected to a PDP 8/F minicomputer. It was shown that the selection of one single wavelength may result in difficulties in detecting boundries between background and cytoplasm and/or between cytoplasm nucleus. A set of two wavelengths, 530 nm and 570 nm, were found to be optimal for the image processing of these cells.