Title: Estimation of the fibre-composition of Verhoff-stained fascia using colour-image processing

Authors: Rohit Nayak, A.K. Pandey, Pramod Kumar, Ramesh R. Galigekere

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India. ' Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India. ' Department of Plastic Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India. ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India

Abstract: This paper reports the results of our work on assessing the composition of abdominal fascia based on microscopic images of specimen stained by Verhoff|s method, using colour-image processing. Verhoff|s method of staining results in collagen fibres appearing red, and elastic fibres and speckle-like artefacts appearing black (elastic fibres being darker), in a yellowish background. The basic idea involves segmenting the red-coloured collagen first, followed by segmenting the black elastic fibres. We use the YIQ colour model for the purpose. Collagen is extracted by thresholding a contrast-enhanced version of the I-image, and elastic fibres are extracted by thresholding the Y-image based on an empirically estimated threshold-value. Results of experiments on real microscopic images are encouraging.

Keywords: abdominal fascia; collagen fibres; elastic fibres; Verfhoff; staining; colour models; segmentation; thresholding; reconstructive surgery; fibre composition; colour image processing; microscopic images.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2011.041231

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2011 Vol.3 No.2, pp.99 - 107

Published online: 28 Feb 2015 *

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