Label‐free histological analysis of retrieved thrombi in acute ischemic stroke using optical diffraction tomography and deep learning

Abstract

For patients with acute ischemic stroke, histological quantification of thrombus composition provides evidence for determining appropriate treatment. However, the traditional manual segmentation of stained thrombi is laborious and inconsistent. In this study, we propose a label‐free method that combines optical diffraction tomography (ODT) and deep learning (DL) to automate the histological quantification process. The DL model classifies ODT image patches with 95% accuracy, and the collective prediction generates a whole‐slide map of red blood cells and fibrin. The resulting whole‐slide composition displays an average error of 1.1% and does not experience staining variability, facilitating faster analysis with reduced labor. The present approach will enable rapid and quantitative evaluation of blood clot composition, expediting the preclinical research and diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases.

Recent Advances and Current Trends in Transmission Tomographic Diffraction Microscopy

“…This review also identifies future tracks to be explored and hot topics to be addressed. These certainly leave TDM development open to a bright future, including the new capabilities enabled by deep-learning approaches, whether for hologram denoising, phase map computations, sample reconstructions, or specimen analysis [ 188 , 222 , 223 , 224 , 225 , 325 , 326 , 327 , 328 , 329 , 330 , 331 , 332 , 333 , 334 , 335 ].…”