COLOR BASED AUTOMATED MICRONUCLEI ASSAY

THIS PROJECT IS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED COLOR BASED MICRONUCLEI ASSAY SYSTEM BASED ON RESULTS OF A PROTOTYPE MS-DOS COLOR ANALYSIS SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM WILL AUTOMATICALLY LOCATE AND COUNT POLYCHROMATIC ERYTHROCYTES (PCE'S), MICRONUCLEATED POLYCHROMATIC ERYTHROCYTES (MPCES) AND NORMOCHROMATIC ERYTHROCYTES (NCES). DURING PHASE I, A NUMBER OF CRITICAL VARIABLE PARAMETERS PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED WILL BE ADAPTED INTO A USER-FRIENDLY INTERACTIVE PROGRAM CAPABLE OF RAPIDLY SELECTING THE APPROPRIATE PARAMETERS FOR EACH NEW SLIDE PREPARATION. THESE PARAMETERS INCLUDE: THE LEVEL OF BACKGROUND STRAIN; CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTABLE ERYTHROCYTE SIZE RANGE AND ROUNDNESS; AND COLOR DISCRIMINATION. COLOR DISCRIMINATION IS THE KEY ELEMENT FOR DIFFERENTIATION. THE SYSTEM WILL BE IMPLEMENTED ON A MACINTOSH IIFX COMPUTER. IT WILL INCLUDE A CAPABILITY TO AUTOMATICALLY PROCESS MULTIPLE SLIDES AND PRODUCE AUTOMATIC REPORTS INCLUDING APPROPRIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. BY CAPTURING ALL IMAGES WITH SCORED MICRONUCLEI THE SYSTEM PROVIDES A NECESSARY AUDIT TRAIL FOR REGULATORY OVERVIEW.