Pathology Imaging Informatics for Clinical Practice and Investigative and Translational Research

Abstract

Pathologists routinely interpret gross and microscopic specimens to render diagnoses and to engage in a broad spectrum of investigative research. Multiple studies have demonstrated that imaging technologies have progressed to a level at which properly digitized specimens provide sufficient quality comparable to the traditional glass slides examinations. Continued advancements in this area will have a profound impact on the manner in which pathology is conducted from this point on. Several leading institutions have already undertaken ambitious projects directed toward digitally imaging, archiving, and sharing pathology specimens. As a result of these advances, the use of informatics in diagnostic and investigative pathology applications is expanding rapidly. In addition, the advent of novel technologies such as multispectral imaging makes it possible to visualize and analyze imaged specimens using multiple wavelengths simultaneously. As these powerful technologies become increasingly accepted and adopted, the opportunities for gaining new insight into the underlying mechanisms of diseases as well as the potential for discriminating among subtypes of pathologies are growing accordingly.

Human-interpretable image features derived from densely mapped cancer pathology slides predict diverse molecular phenotypes

“…The ability to predict molecular phenotypes directly from WSIs in an interpretable fashion offers numerous potential benefits for clinical oncology. Hospitals, healthcare institutions, and biotechnology companies have decades of archival histopathology data captured from routine care and clinical trials 86 . With improved accuracy, HIF-based models could leverage this information to enable the discovery of patient subpopulations with specific treatment susceptibilities, biomarkers predictive of drug response, and hypotheses for subsequent research.…”

Comparative Analysis Reveals Potential Utility of Digital Microscopy in the Evaluation of Peripheral Blood Smears With Some Barriers to Implementation

“…The electronic files generated can then be reviewed by pathologists in a similar way to light microscopy, a technique also known as digital microscopy. [6][7][8] In fact, the utility of this technology has been documented for a variety of purposes, such as primary diagnosis, consultation, quality assurance, education, image analysis, research, and archiving, [9][10][11][12][13] but has not been used extensively in the specific area of hematology. Before digital microscopy can be routinely used for PBS, the technical aspects of glass-slide digitization and the reliability and reproducibility of their interpretation must be addressed.…”

Pathology imaging informatics for quantitative analysis of whole-slide images

“…This review is by no means a comprehensive description of WSI informatics. However, compared to recent reviews on WSI informatics4 6 8 that highlight general challenges and applications, we discuss state-of-the-art analytical methods in the key components of WSI-based CDSS.…”