Computer-aided quantification of microvascular networks: Application to alterations due to pathological angiogenesis in the hamster.
Microvasc Res
; 112: 53-64, 2017 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28300547
ABSTRACT
Angiogenesis is both a physiological and a pathological process of great complexity, which is difficult to measure objectively and automatically. The hamster cheek pouch (HCP) prepared for intravital-microscopy (IVM) has been used to characterize microvascular functions in many studies and was chosen to investigate microvascular characteristics observed in normal non-infected hamsters as compared to those HCPs parasitized by Trypanosoma cruzi. Images of HCPs captured at IVM were subjected to computer based measurements of angiogenesis and histamine-induced macromolecular (FITC-dextran) leakage with an image segmentation approach that has the capacity to discriminate between fluorescence emitted by macromolecular tracers inside the vasculature and in the extravascular space. We present such an automatic segmentation methodology using known tools from image processing field that, to our knowledge, have not been tested in IVM images. We have compared this methodology with a recently published segmentation strategy based on image intensity thresholding. Our method renders an accurate and robust segmentation of blood vessels for different microvascular scenarios, normal and pathological. Application of the proposed strategy for objective and automatic measurement of angiogenesis detection was explored in detail.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Algoritmos
/
Interpretación de Imagen Asistida por Computador
/
Mejilla
/
Enfermedad de Chagas
/
Microvasos
/
Microscopía Intravital
/
Neovascularización Patológica
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Microvasc Res
Año:
2017
Tipo del documento:
Article