Bildsegmentation zur Untersuchung von Streulichtbildern bei der laseroptischen Diagnose von rheumatoider Arthritis

Optical imaging in biomedicine is governed by the light absorption and scattering interaction on microscopic and macroscopic constituents in the medium. Therefore, light scattering characteristics of human tissue correlates with the stage of some diseases. In the near infrared range the scattering event with the coefficient approximately two orders of magnitude greater than absorption plays a dominant role. The potential of an experimental laser diode based setup for the transillumination of rheumatoid finger joints and the pattern of the stray light detection are demonstrated. For evaluating the scattering light images a new non-local image segmentation method is presented. Regarding a noisy picture as a multicomponent mixture of gray scaled particles, this method minimizes a non-convex free energy functional under the constraint of mass conservation of the components. Contrary to constructing equilibrium distributions as steady states of an adequate evolution equation, a direct descent method for the free energy is used to separate the components of the image

Bildsegmentation zur Untersuchung von Streulichtbildern bei der laseroptischen Diagnose von rheumatoider Arthritis

Optical imaging in biomedicine is governed by the light absorption and scattering interaction on microscopic and macroscopic constituents in the medium. Therefore, light scattering characteristics of human tissue correlates with the stage of some diseases. In the near infrared range the scattering event with the coefficient approximately two orders of magnitude greater than absorption plays a dominant role. The potential of an experimental laser diode based setup for the transillumination of rheumatoid finger joints and the pattern of the stray light detection are demonstrated. For evaluating the scattering light images a new non-local image segmentation method is presented. Regarding a noisy picture as a multicomponent mixture of gray scaled particles, this method minimizes a non-convex free energy functional under the constraint of mass conservation of the components. Contrary to constructing equilibrium distributions as steady states of an adequate evolution equation, a direct descent method for the free energy is used to separate the components of the image

Apoptosis- and necrosis-induced changes in light attenuation measured by optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to determine optical properties of pelleted human fibroblasts in which necrosis or apoptosis had been induced. We analysed the OCT data, including both the scattering properties of the medium and the axial point spread function of the OCT system. The optical attenuation coefficient in necrotic cells decreased from 2.2 ± 0.3 mm−1 to 1.3 ± 0.6 mm−1, whereas, in the apoptotic cells, an increase to 6.4 ± 1.7 mm−1 was observed. The results from cultured cells, as presented in this study, indicate the ability of OCT to detect and differentiate between viable, apoptotic, and necrotic cells, based on their attenuation coefficient. This functional supplement to high-resolution OCT imaging can be of great clinical benefit, enabling on-line monitoring of tissues, e.g. for feedback in cancer treatment

On the use of Si-based nanohole arrays as near-field biochips

Near-field biochips based on nanohole arrays produced in silicon wafers are described and the first studies of cells and DNA with the help of a laser scanning microscope are presented

Laser phase microscopy and functional imaging of living human cancer cells during the cell cycle

The purpose of the investigation was to elaborate a new method of functional imaging of living tumor cells. Human colon carcinoma cells HCT116 were investigated with a conventional light microscope, confocal laser scanning microscope and with a laser phase microscope (LPM). The LPM is a functional imaging technique providing information about cell morphology which is imposed by the physiological inhomogeneity of the refractive index. The phase of the light wave passing through an object contains quantitative information about the object thickness, the shape, and the spatial distribution of the refractive index varying with morphology and chemical composition inhomogeneity inside the object. The new method of investigation of the cells in different stages of the cell cycle is developed. Every phase image of the investigated cells has been compared with conventional light microscopic and confocal microscopic images of the same cell. the relation between the cell state, their morphological peculiarities and the phase characteristics of the measured cell is determined. Data thus acquired, quantitatively characterizing intra- and intercellular processes during the cell cycle, and the method of measurements can be used to investigate with high optic resolution the mechanisms of different physical, chemical and biomolecular interactions with the tumor cells

Image Segmentation for the Investigation of Scattered-Light Images when Laser-Optically Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis

With 1–2% of the population affected, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most frequent inflammatory arthropathy. In most cases, RA initially affects the small joints, only, especially the finger joints. The inflammations of the joints caused by this disease usually start with a synovitis. At the same time, there is a change in the filtration properties of the synovialis, which increases the enzyme rate within the synovia thus accelerating the progress of inflammation. In a later stage, granulation and neovascularisation occur in the synovia (Figs. 1 and 2), which may finally lead to the destruction of cartilage and bone structures [1]. So, it is rather unsurprising that the optical parameters [2, 3] (Table 1) change in these early stages of the disease