Digital pathology: Identifying spongiosis in unstained histopathology specimen

Histopathological specimens are prepped through a process called staining prior to analysis by the pathologist. Staining of a pathological specimen is a standard procedure used to increase the contrast between the cell and tissue structures against the background. Unfortunately, staining is a lengthy process that requires hours of preparation. Moreover, the chemicals used to perform the procedure can affect the specimen´s characteristics. The entire problem of staining can be eliminated if detection and diagnosis can be performed on unstained specimen. However the low-contrast unstained samples can seriously affect the diagnosis reliability. Currently, no established technique exists for the detection and diagnosis of unstained histhopathological samples. This project aims to detect and diagnose spongiosis, a type of cerebral edema, in unstained histopathological samples taken from poultry brains. Success of this research is the first step towards detecting various classes of cerebral edema. It is a fast and accurate clinical tool that greatly enhances the analytic capability of the histopathological laboratory. The computer-aided diagnosis enables short turn-around time and higher consistency in the histopathological laboratory that services hospitals and clinics.