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A new computational method for hepatic fat microvesicles counting in histological study in rats

2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 418; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.01.011

1090-2104

Céphora Maria Sabarense, Keller Sullivan Oliveira Rocha, Damiana Diniz Rosa, José Helvecio Martins, Marina Maria Lelis da Silva Pereira, Fabiano Ferreira da Silva, Brian L. Steward,

Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis

Liver steatosis was once believed to be a benign condition, with rare progression to chronic liver disease. Thus, in both clinical and experimental practice, it is fundamental to have a reliable and objective method for its precise quantification. An image analysis algorithm was developed and validated for automatically and rapidly quantifying hepatic fat microvesicles. The image processing algorithms automatically segmented interstitial steatosis areas and analyzed the threshold region. Automatic quantifications did not significantly differ from manual evaluations of means of the same areas. Comparison of our image analysis quantifications with staging of histologic evaluations of liver steatosis presented significant correlations that are based on the distribution patterns and on the area quantity of steatosis, respectively. The use of algorithms for analysis and image processing is a sensitive, precise, objective and reproducible method of quantifying hepatic fat microvesicles, which complements semi-quantitative histologic evaluation systems.