Doudkine A, Macaulay C, Poulin N, Palcic B
Xillix Technologies Corp. Vancouver, British Columbia.
Pathologica. 1995 Jun;87(3):286-99.
DNA image cytometry is widely used in cytopathology as a means to obtain objective information concerning the diagnosis and prognosis of human cancer. Using specially designed devices, the high resolution spatial and photometric information is available in the images of a microscopic field. If quantitative DNA specific stains are used the chromatin distribution in the cell nuclei can be measured, which is one of the critical features for cytopathological analysis. In normal cells, changes in the chromatin appearance reflect changes in the activation patterns of genes. In tumors, dramatic changes in the nuclear chromatin appearance are common and have been associated with the progression of the disease. Features describing the chromatin distribution pattern are referred to as texture features. Nuclear texture features are sensitive to the differences between the various descriptive classes of chromatin patterns. In this paper we discuss the main categories of nuclear texture measurements. Texture features can be roughly divided into the following categories: 1) descriptive statistics of chromatin distribution; 2) discrete texture features; 3) range extreme; 4) markovian; 5) run length and 6) fractal texture features. Representative features of each of the above categories are discussed together with mathematical formulas, simple figures for explanation as well as images of typical cells which differ significantly in some texture features. Key references are also provided.
DNA图像细胞计量术在细胞病理学中被广泛应用，作为获取有关人类癌症诊断和预后客观信息的一种手段。使用专门设计的设备，可以在显微镜视野图像中获得高分辨率的空间和光度信息。如果使用定量DNA特异性染色剂，就可以测量细胞核中的染色质分布，这是细胞病理学分析的关键特征之一。在正常细胞中，染色质外观的变化反映了基因激活模式的变化。在肿瘤中，核染色质外观的显著变化很常见，并且与疾病进展有关。描述染色质分布模式的特征被称为纹理特征。核纹理特征对染色质模式的各种描述类别之间的差异很敏感。在本文中，我们讨论了核纹理测量的主要类别。纹理特征大致可分为以下几类：1）染色质分布的描述性统计；2）离散纹理特征；3）范围极值；4）马尔可夫特征；5）游程长度；6）分形纹理特征。我们将讨论上述每一类别的代表性特征，并给出数学公式、用于解释的简单图形以及在某些纹理特征上有显著差异的典型细胞图像。还提供了关键参考文献。
