Color correction of pathological images for different staining-condition slides

The color of hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) stained tissue image varies with the staining conditions and with the characteristics of the microscope and imaging devices. This color variation affects the diagnostic examination. This paper proposes a color correction method for images of pathological slides prepared under inappropriate staining-condition. In the proposed method, the spectral transmittance obtained by a multispectral digital camera is utilized to estimate the amount of dye for each pixel. Subsequently the amount of dye is adjusted based on the chemical kinetic equation by digital process, so that the dye amount distribution would be equivalent to that of the reference slide, which is prepared under ideal staining conditions. Through the experiments using the H&E stained slides of liver tissue, the color was almost successfully corrected by the proposed method.