title: Automated analysis of living cells through the quantitative use of automated phase contrast microscopy.
abstract: A simplified theory of image formation in phase contrast microscopy is presented. It is shown that the phase shift induced in light (related to the refractive index) by the observed object can be reconstructed, point by point, from the phase-contrast digitally sampled image through an appropriate algorithm. This allows one to make quantitative observations on unstained, living cells.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001322:Autoanalysis; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006224:Cricetinae; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*