Automatic image analysis of antibody assays to measles virus

A system for the automatic analysis of 24-well plates used in antibody assays to measles virus has been designed and developed based on digitising the information on the plate through a CCD camera, displaying the image and then analysing it using image processing methods. The system is being used in the analysis of sera from individuals vaccinated against measles and has been compared with the previous method where the plates were assessed by eye. The results from both methods are very similar although the manual method consisted of counting numbers of plaques (clear areas in the cells of the plate) and the automatic method measured plaque area. The automatic method is much faster than the original method and prevents operator fatigue. It does not deal, at present, with anomalies such as partially filled wells but could be developed to do so by incorporating intelligence into the system.