title: An automated approach to the segmentation of HEp-2 cells for the indirect immunofluorescence ANA test.
abstract: The automatization of the analysis of Indirect Immunofluorescence (IIF) images is of paramount importance for the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. This paper proposes a solution to one of the most challenging steps of this process, the segmentation of HEp-2 cells, through an adaptive marker-controlled watershed approach. Our algorithm automatically conforms the marker selection pipeline to the peculiar characteristics of the input image, hence it is able to cope with different fluorescent intensities and staining patterns without any a priori knowledge. Furthermore, it shows a reduced sensitivity to over-segmentation errors and uneven illumination, that are typical issues of IIF imaging.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer and Control Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Cso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tonti
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer and Control Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Cso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy. Electronic address: santa.dicataldo@polito.it.
authors.forename: Santa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Cataldo
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer and Control Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Cso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bottino
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer and Control Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Cso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ficarra
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods*; D003240:Connective Tissue Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear
keywords: ANA testing; Cell pattern analysis; HEp-2 cell segmentation; Indirect immunofluorescence; Microscope image processing