Abstract
We describe a computer vision-based mosaicking method for in vivo videos of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). RCM is a microscopic imaging technique, which enables the users to rapidly examine tissue in vivo. Providing resolution at cellular-level morphology, RCM imaging combined with mosaicking has shown to be highly sensitive and specific for non-invasively guiding skin cancer diagnosis. However, current RCM mosaicking techniques with existing microscopes have been limited to two-dimensional sequences of individual still images, acquired in a highly controlled manner, and along a specific predefined raster path, covering a limited area. The recent advent of smaller handheld microscopes is enabling acquisition of videos, acquired in a relatively uncontrolled manner and along an ad-hoc arbitrarily free-form, non-rastered path. Mosaicking of video-images (video-mosaicking) is necessary to display large areas of tissue. Our video-mosaicking methods addresses this need. The method can handle unique challenges encountered during video capture such as motion blur artifacts due to rapid motion of the microscope over the imaged area, warping in frames due to changes in contact angle and varying resolution with depth. We present test examples of video-mosaics of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, to demonstrate potential clinical utility.
Highlights
Imaging over large areas of tissue is often necessary in clinical and research settings
Our solutions presented in this paper are generic for any setting in which large field of view video-mosaics are needed from deep, high-resolution microscopic imaging in living tissue, we are, in this paper, focused on the use of video-mosaicking for reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) imaging in human skin in vivo
The flexibility and robustness of our approach is demonstrated for producing useful video-mosaics in all three settings.The first case is a lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM), where the need for accurate planning of surgical margins at non-flat corrugated and irregular anatomical sites is met by video-mosaicking over arbitrarily large predefined areas of tissue
Summary
Imaging over large areas of tissue is often necessary in clinical and research settings. With the advent of a new generation of handheld confocal microscopes, acquisition of videos instead of only still images is becoming increasingly useful[29,30,31] to consistently and rapidly display tumor morphology and surrounding normal tissue over much larger areas of skin (from 2 mm × 2 mm up to 10 mm × 10 mm) In such settings, the special challenges are that the microscope is manually controlled and focused at varying depths (50 to 200 μm) in living tissue, resulting in varying resolution, exaggerated motion and distortion between images in any video. There is a need in the clinic for video-mosaicking of RCM images, toward wider acceptance and adoption for routine use
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