title: Lossy compression in diagnostic virtual 3-dimensional microscopy--where is the limit?
abstract: Data compression is inevitable to reduce the huge data amounts of virtual slides, especially in virtual 3-dimensional (3D) microscopy. Lossy compression influences the image quality and leads to recognizable compression artifacts above a compression ratio of 20:1 in JPEG2000 format. To test out whether higher compression ratios are acceptable in diagnostic pathology, we prepared virtual 3D slides of gastric biopsy specimens with or without Helicobacter pylori gastritis using 5 different compression ratios as follows: 20:1, 40:1, 50:1, 75:1, and 200:1. The virtual 3D slides were diagnosed in a blinded manner by 3 pathologists according to the updated Sydney classification. The results showed no significant differences using virtual 3D slides with any compression of up to 200:1. We conclude that compression ratios higher than those commonly used can be applied in virtual microscopy, even in diagnostic applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, D-39120 Magdeburg, Germany. kalinski@med.ovgu.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kalinski
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zwönitzer
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grabellus
authors.forename: Sien-Yi
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Sheu
authors.forename: Saadettin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sel
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bernarding
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roessner
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D044962:Data Compression / Q000379:methods*; D005756:Gastritis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology; D014584:User-Computer Interface