Whole Slide Imaging and Its Applications to Histopathological Studies of Liver Disorders.

Rossana C N Melo,Cinthia Palazzi,Vitor H Neves,Kássia K Malta,Thiago P Silva,Maximilian W D Raas

doi:10.3389/fmed.2019.00310

Rossana C N Melo, Cinthia Palazzi + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00310

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Abstract

Histological analysis of hepatic tissue specimens is essential for evaluating the pathology of several liver disorders such as chronic liver diseases, hepatocellular carcinomas, liver steatosis, and infectious liver diseases. Manual examination of histological slides on the microscope is a classically used method to study these disorders. However, it is considered time-consuming, limited, and associated with intra- and inter-observer variability. Emerging technologies such as whole slide imaging (WSI), also termed virtual microscopy, have increasingly been used to improve the assessment of histological features with applications in both clinical and research laboratories. WSI enables the acquisition of the tissue morphology/pathology from glass slides and translates it into a digital form comparable to a conventional microscope, but with several advantages such as easy image accessibility and storage, portability, sharing, annotation, qualitative and quantitative image analysis, and use for educational purposes. WSI-generated images simultaneously provide high resolution and a wide field of observation that can cover the entire section, extending any single field of view. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the application of WSI to histopathological analyses of liver disorders as well as to understand liver biology. We address how WSI may improve the assessment and quantification of multiple histological parameters in the liver, and help diagnose several hepatic conditions with important clinical implications. The WSI technical limitations are also discussed.

Highlights

Histological evaluation of hepatic tissue specimens is central for diagnosis and grading of numerous liver diseases in the clinical practice and research and to understand different aspects of the liver biology [1,2,3]
There are assorted technologies that have been developed under the umbrella of digital pathology, including whole slide imaging (WSI), a technique that involves digitalization of entire histologic sections with the use of a digital slide scanner generating “digital slides” [10,11,12]
While few validation studies have compared WSI and conventional light microscopy in the field of liver pathology, diverse technical approaches associated with WSI, including new algorithms, have been described for quantification of histopathological aspects of liver disorders such as cell alterations in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and detection of hepatic fibrosis and steatosis

Summary

Introduction

Histological evaluation of hepatic tissue specimens is central for diagnosis and grading of numerous liver diseases in the clinical practice and research and to understand different aspects of the liver biology [1,2,3]. While few validation studies have compared WSI and conventional light microscopy in the field of liver pathology, diverse technical approaches associated with WSI, including new algorithms, have been described for quantification of histopathological aspects of liver disorders such as cell alterations in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and detection of hepatic fibrosis and steatosis.

Results

Conclusion