Texture analysis of the epidermis based on fast Fourier transformation in Sjögren-Larsson syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether image analysis of routine hematoxylin-eosin (H-E) skin sections using fast Fourier transformation (FFT) could detect structural alterations in patients with Sjögren-Larsson syndrome (SLS) diagnosed by molecular biology.


METHODS
Skin punch biopsies of 9 patients with SLS and 17 healthy volunteers were obtained. Digital images of routine histologic sections were taken, and their gray scale luminance was analyzed by FFT. The inertia values were determined for different ranges of the spatial frequencies in the vertical and horizontal direction. To get an estimation of anisotropy, we calculated the resultant vector of the designated frequency ranges.


RESULTS
In the prickle cell layer, SLS patients showed more intense amplitudes in spatial structures with periods between 1.2 and 3.6 microm in the vertical direction, which correlated in part with accentuated nuclei and nucleoli and perinucleolar halos in the H-E sections. In a linear discriminant analysis, the variables derived from the FFT images correctly discriminated 84.6% of the patients. Texture features derived from the gray level cooccurrence matrix were not able to separate the groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Exploratory texture analysis by FFT was able to detect discrete alterations in the prickle cell layer in routine light microscopy slides of SLS patients. The structural changes identified by FFT may be related to abnormal cellular components associated with aberrant lipid metabolism.
Auada
Mariam P
MP
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, State University of Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Adam
Randall L
RL
Leite
Neucimar J
NJ
Puzzi
Maria B
MB
Cintra
Maria L
ML
Rizzo
William B
WB
Metze
Konradin
K
D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D004817:Epidermis / Q000473:pathology*; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006416:Hematoxylin; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016111:Sjogren-Larsson Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology
D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D006416:Hematoxylin