A commercially available interactive pattern recognition system for the characterization of blood cells: description of the system, extraction and evaluation of simple geometrical parameters of normal white cells.

A programmable system, the Textur Analyse System (T.A.S.) of E. Leitz, is described for use in interactive work on pattern recognition of white blood cells. The system appears well suited for the task of finding new parameters for the characterization of normal and abnormal blood cells. Hardware advantages such as speed of operation are coupled with software flexibility. The first application of the machine has been the extraction of some of the ordinary parameters for characterization of leucocytes. The value of each parameter has been analysed with the interactive statistical pattern analysis program (ISPAHAN). A separation in the five normal classes of peripheral white blood cells can be achieved, in which the nuclear/cell area ratio and nuclear area together with the density histograms proved to be the most important parameters. The interesting feature of the system is, however, the possibility of finding new data for the recognition of normal and abnormal blood cells.