From the Departments of Bioengineering (Drs McCall, Richards-Kortum, and Tkaczyk and Mr Jackson) and Electrical Engineering (Drs Richards-Kortum and Tkaczyk), Rice University, Houston, Texas; and the Center for Molecular and Translational Infectious Disease Research, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, Texas (Drs Olsen, Nelles, Williams, and Graviss).
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2014 Mar;138(3):379-89. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2013-0146-OA. Epub 2013 Aug 15.
A prototype miniature objective that was designed for a point-of-care diagnostic array microscope for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and previously fabricated and presented in a proof of concept is evaluated for its effectiveness in detecting acid-fast bacteria.
To evaluate the ability of the microscope to resolve submicron features and details in the image of acid-fast microorganisms stained with a fluorescent dye, and to evaluate the accuracy of clinical diagnoses made with digital images acquired with the objective.
The lens prescription data for the microscope design are presented. A test platform is built by combining parts of a standard microscope, a prototype objective, and a digital single-lens reflex camera. Counts of acid-fast bacteria made with the prototype objective are compared to counts obtained with a standard microscope over matched fields of view. Two sets of 20 smears, positive and negative, are diagnosed by 2 pathologists as sputum smear positive or sputum smear negative, using both a standard clinical microscope and the prototype objective under evaluation. The results are compared to a reference diagnosis of the same sample.
More bacteria are counted in matched fields of view in digital images taken with the prototype objective than with the standard clinical microscope. All diagnostic results are found to be highly concordant.
An array microscope built with this miniature lens design will be able to detect M tuberculosis with high sensitivity and specificity.
一种用于即时诊断检测阵列显微镜的微型物镜原型已被设计出来，该显微镜用于检测结核分枝杆菌，且此前已被制作并展示了其概念验证。本研究旨在评估该物镜在检测抗酸细菌方面的有效性。
评估显微镜分辨荧光染料染色的抗酸微生物亚微米特征和细节的能力，并评估使用该物镜获取的数字图像进行临床诊断的准确性。
呈现了显微镜设计的透镜处方数据。通过将标准显微镜、原型物镜和数码单反相机的部件组合，构建了一个测试平台。使用原型物镜进行的抗酸细菌计数与使用标准显微镜在匹配视场中进行的计数进行了比较。由 2 位病理学家使用标准临床显微镜和正在评估的原型物镜对 20 张涂片（阳性和阴性各 10 张）进行诊断，分为痰涂片阳性或痰涂片阴性。将结果与同一样本的参考诊断进行比较。
与标准临床显微镜相比，在使用原型物镜拍摄的数字图像中，匹配视场中的细菌计数更多。所有诊断结果都高度一致。
使用这种微型透镜设计制造的阵列显微镜将能够以高灵敏度和特异性检测结核分枝杆菌。
