6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A070
QUANTIFICATION OF TUMOUR ANGIOGENESIS: PART II - ANSWERS OFFERED BY LOW RESOLUTION IMAGE TREATMENT
Herlin P 1, Schüpp S 2, Belhomme P 3, Tran K 1, Plancoulaine B 4, Duigou F 1, Lebeau C 1, Denoux Y 1, Elmoataz A 2, Bloyet D 2, Coster C 5

1) Laboratoire d'Anatomie Pathologique, Centre de Lutte contre le Cancer François Bacless, Caen, 2) GREYC - ISMRA, UPRES-A CNRS 6072, Caen, 3) LUSAC, Site Universitaire de Cherbourg, Octeville, 4) Département Mesures Physique IUT Caen, Caen, 5) LERMAT - ISMRA, UPRES-A CNRS 6004, Caen, 1-5) Pôle Traitement et Analyse d'Images de Basse Normandie, France

Development of automatic image treatment procedures are expected to provide pathologists in the future with an objective way to quantify blood vessels on tumour sections. A way of overcoming the difficult problem of tumour tissue heterogeneity lies in the treatment of the whole tissue section on which blood vessels have been immunostained. A one step acquisition of such a large image can be obtained thanks to a slide scanner (Scan 35 Plus - Polaroid) and a special device for handling glass slides (Pathscan Enabler - Meyer Instruments). Resolution reached in these conditions (2700 dpi) is sufficient, in our experience, to visualize even the smallest blood vessel profiles. Treatment of such large images can be obtained thanks to chaining of mathematical morphology operators in the environment of an image analysis toolbox (Aphelion ADCIS). Sequences of treatment and choice of operators are both guided by the description of vascular structures. A first strategy is proposed and is currently subject to quality control in our laboratory.