Referenceless image quality evaluation for whole slide imaging

Abstract

Objective:The image quality in whole slide imaging (WSI) is one of the most important issues for the practical use of WSI scanners. In this paper, we proposed an image quality evaluation method for scanned slide images in which no reference image is required.Methods:While most of the conventional methods for no-reference evaluation only deal with one image degradation at a time, the proposed method is capable of assessing both blur and noise by using an evaluation index which is calculated using the sharpness and noise information of the images in a given training data set by linear regression analysis. The linear regression coefficients can be determined in two ways depending on the purpose of the evaluation. For objective quality evaluation, the coefficients are determined using a reference image with mean square error as the objective value in the analysis. On the other hand, for subjective quality evaluation, the subjective scores given by human observers are used as the objective values in the analysis. The predictive linear regression models for the objective and subjective image quality evaluations, which were constructed using training images, were then used on test data wherein the calculated objective values are construed as the evaluation indices.Results:The results of our experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed image quality evaluation method in both objective and subjective image quality measurements. Finally, we demonstrated the application of the proposed evaluation method to the WSI image quality assessment and automatic rescanning in the WSI scanner.

Use of Digital Whole Slide Imaging in Dermatopathology

“…Accurate interpretation of mitotic rate is vital to appropriate T1 melanoma classification [17,18]. More broadly, interpretive accuracy using digital WSI is currently contingent upon image quality, the type of platform utilized, user experience, and evidence for concordance of digital WSI interpretation to that of glass slides [24][25][26].…”

Digitized Whole Slides for Breast Pathology Interpretation: Current Practices and Perceptions

“…Furthermore, tradeoffs exist between file size and resolution/ image detail. Compounding these issues is the lack of image standards in pathology and image quality evaluation methods, unlike in radiology, where they are well developed [8,20]. Agreement studies comparing glass slides with digital slides for pathology interpretation have begun to provide evidence that supports the use of WSI [22,23,24], including a recent study demonstrating 96.5 % concordance between WSI and light microscopy [24].…”

“…Considering the advantages and disadvantages of WSI, the shift towards health technology is inevitable, and diffusion and improvement of WSI will continue. In fact, the trend among medical schools is to use digital images and digital slide libraries instead of light microscopes for pathology courses, thus potentially creating a new generation of digitally-trained pathologists [20]. Despite the 2011 FDA ruling, WSI continues to be used for a variety of purposes, but there is very little known about the patterns of use among pathologists or their perceptions of WSI for pathology interpretation.…”

An Automated Blur Detection Method for Histological Whole Slide Imaging

“…All of the features had larger values for sharp images compared to blurred images, with the exception of SH , which had larger values for blurred images [15]. All image features were computed in Python using SciPy [20] and the scikit-image image processing toolkit [21].…”