AUTOMATIC HIGH-SPEED WHITE-CELL DIFFERENTIAL COUNTING

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF A MODERATE-COST, HIGH-PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENT UTILIZING METACHROMATIC STAINING AND VERY HIGH-SPEED IMAGE PROCESSING FOR AUTOMATIC DIFFERENTIATION, IDENTIFICATION, AND ENUMERATION OF HUMAN BLOOD LEUKOCYTES. SUCH AN INSTRUMENT WILL PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT ECONOMIC BENEFITIN THE CLINICAL LABORATORY AND SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVE ROUTINETEST PRECISION. COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT WILL BE BASED ON ADDING THIS CAPABILITY TO AN EXISTING COMMERCIAL IMAGING FLOW CYTOMETER AND A SOON-TO-BE INTRODUCED HIGH-SPEED MICROSCOPE CYTOMETER. THIS STUDY WILL UTILIZE THE HIGH-SPEED MICROSCOPE CYTOMETER TO COLLECT AND PROCESS LEUKOCYTE IMAGE DATA IN ORDER TO EXTRACT FEATURES FOR LEUKOCYTE DIFFERENTIATION. RECOGNITIONALGORITHMS WILL BE DEVELOPED USING OFF-LINE COMPUTING.