Furness P N
University of Leicester, Department of Pathology, Leicester General Hospital, U.K.
J Pathol. 1997 Nov;183(3):253-63. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-9896(199711)183:3<253::AID-PATH927>3.0.CO;2-P.
Digital images are routinely used by the publishing industry, but most diagnostic pathologists are unfamiliar with the technology and its possibilities. This review aims to explain the basic principles of digital image acquisition, storage, manipulation and use, and the possibilities provided not only in research, but also in teaching and in routine diagnostic pathology. Images of natural objects are usually expressed digitally as 'bitmaps'--rectilinear arrays of small dots. The size of each dot can vary, but so can its information content in terms, for example, of colour, greyscale or opacity. Various file formats and compression algorithms are available. Video cameras connected to microscopes are familiar to most pathologists; video images can be converted directly to a digital form by a suitably equipped computer. Digital cameras and scanners are alternative acquisition tools of relevance to pathologists. Once acquired, a digital image can easily be subjected to the digital equivalent of any conventional darkroom manipulation and modern software allows much more flexibility, to such an extent that a new tool for scientific fraud has been created. For research, image enhancement and analysis is an increasingly powerful and affordable tool. Morphometric measurements are, after many predictions, at last beginning to be part of the toolkit of the diagnostic pathologist. In teaching, the potential to create dramatic yet informative presentations is demonstrated daily by the publishing industry; such methods are readily applicable to the classroom. The combination of digital images and the Internet raises many possibilities; for example, instead of seeking one expert diagnostic opinion, one could simultaneously seek the opinion of many, all around the globe. It is inevitable that in the coming years the use of digital images will spread from the laboratory to the medical curriculum and to the whole of diagnostic pathology.
出版行业经常使用数字图像，但大多数诊断病理学家并不熟悉这项技术及其潜力。本综述旨在解释数字图像采集、存储、处理和使用的基本原理，以及其在研究、教学和常规诊断病理学中所提供的可能性。自然物体的图像通常以“位图”的形式进行数字表达——即小像素点的直线阵列。每个像素点的大小可以不同，其信息内容也可以不同，例如颜色、灰度或不透明度。有各种文件格式和压缩算法可供使用。大多数病理学家都熟悉连接到显微镜的摄像机；视频图像可以通过配备适当的计算机直接转换为数字形式。数码相机和扫描仪是与病理学家相关的替代采集工具。一旦获取，数字图像可以很容易地进行任何传统暗房操作的数字等效操作，现代软件提供了更大的灵活性，以至于创造了一种新的科学欺诈工具。对于研究而言，图像增强和分析是一种越来越强大且经济实惠的工具。经过多次预测，形态测量终于开始成为诊断病理学家工具包的一部分。在教学中，出版行业每天都在展示创建引人入胜且信息丰富的演示文稿的潜力；这些方法很容易应用于课堂。数字图像和互联网的结合带来了许多可能性；例如，与其寻求一位专家的诊断意见，不如同时寻求全球各地许多人的意见。在未来几年，数字图像的使用必然会从实验室扩展到医学课程以及整个诊断病理学领域。
