Systems and methods for meso-dissection

Inventors

Barnes, Michael • Chukka, Srinivas • Qadri, Mohammad

Assignees

Roche Molecular Systems Inc

Abstract

The subject disclosure provides systems, computer-implemented methods, and clinical workflows for meso-dissection of biological specimens and tissue slides by incorporating annotation and inter-marker registration modules within digital pathology imaging and meso-dissection (or milling) systems. Images of a reference slide a milling slide may be acquired using the same imaging system, with the annotations on the image associated with the milling slide being based on the inter-marker registration. Each image along with its respective annotations and meta-data may be associated with a project or a case and stored in an image management system. A same-marker registration may be used to map annotations from the annotated image of the milling slide to a live image of the milling slide. The milling slide may be milled based on the annotations, with milled tissue output into a contained that is labeled in association with the labeled input slides.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a digital-pathology-guided approach for dissecting tissue on a milling specimen disposed on a milling slide. An imaging apparatus or a whole slide scanner acquires a first image and one or more adjacent images including at least a milling image of the tissue specimen on the milling slide, where the milling image is a live-image of the milling slide. The system automatically maps one or more annotations from the first image to the one or more adjacent images.

The invention solves the problem of linking reference annotations acquired on image-based representations to the correct spatial locations on milling images of tissue on milling slides, so that tissue portions are dissected based on the mapped annotations. Automated inter-marker registration or same-marker registration is used to map annotations from the first image to adjacent images, including milling images corresponding to serial sections derived from a single tissue block. The mapped annotations are then used to dissect one or more portions of tissue from the tissue specimen disposed on the milling slide.

A further aspect provides a digital pathology instrument that annotates a first image of a plurality of serial images of a tissue block, maps the annotations from the first image to a milling image, and exports the one or more annotations of the milling image to a milling system. The exported milling annotations are associated with the milling system so that the milling system can dissect the milling slide or map annotations onto a live image of the milling slide as described by the instrument workflow.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes three independent claims. Across these independent claims, the core coverage is the automatic mapping of annotations from acquired images to milling images, including live-image milling slides, followed by dissecting tissue based on the mapped annotations, and exporting milling-image annotations to a milling system.

Collectively, the independent claims cover systems and instruments that annotate reference image(s) of tissue block serial images, automatically map those annotations to milling images corresponding to a milling specimen, including live-image milling slides, and use or export the mapped milling annotations so that tissue can be dissected on the milling slide.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications

No documented applications found