A method to extract spots from the image of the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) spot assay

Author

Lin, Chih-Yang ; Ching, Yu-Tai ; Wu-Hsieh, B.A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. & Inf. Sci., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

3

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

2549

Abstract

ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) spot assay is a method widely used by immunologists to enumerate cytokine-producing cells within a specific cell population. The result of ELISA is presented in an image containing numerous color spots. We present a method to extract and to count the number of spots. The proposed method is based on color analysis. Since CIE L*u*v* space has linear perceptibility of color differences, we convert the RGB space to L*u*v* space. The system is trained to obtain the standard color of the spots and get the color difference image in L*u*v* space. According to the feature of the spots we design a special matched filter to filter out the noise and enhance the spots. Finally a binary image is obtained. In the binary images, pixels in the spots have gray scale 255 and the others are 0. Our design makes it easy to analyze the perimeter and size of the spots in addition to counting them in the binary image.

Keywords

biochemistry; biological techniques; biology computing; cellular biophysics; colorimetry; image colour analysis; matched filters; proteins; CIE L*u*v* space; ELISA spot assay; RGB space; binary images; color analysis; color differences; color spots; counting; cytokine-producing cells; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; gray scale; image; immune cells; immunologists; linear perceptibility; noise; pixels; special matched filter; specific cell population; spot extraction; spot perimeter; spot size; standard color; Biomedical imaging; Colored noise; Data mining; Educational institutions; Image color analysis; Image converters; Immune system; Information science; Matched filters; Pixel;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2001. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE

ISSN

1094-687X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7211-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2001.1017299

Filename

1017299