Cost-effective,Whole-slide Imaging System And Its Clinical Application

Microscopy is closely related to disease detection,and is an indispensable tool in health-care,both widely used as a clinical gold standard as well as in emerging applications such as point of care technologies(POCT).Indeed,many hospital tests such as screening for parasites,searching for tumor cells,artificial classification and counting of body fluid cells,etc.still cannot be separated from microscopic examination.In hospitals of developed countries and regions,medical facilities are rather complete,and there is a surfeit of experienced doctors.However,in poor rural areas,disaster areas and regions of armed conflict,medical equipment is scarce,and there is a serious shortage of doctors with experience in diagnosis.Low-cost automated microscopes,combining both intelligent design,control,and data analysis can help to alleviate some challenges in medical diagnosis in these areas.To this end,we investigated a low-cost,open-source,modular,automated,and whole-slide imaging microscope that can be used for disease diagnosis.A first generation was designed intentionally without using specially manufactured components,with a detailed parts list,such that people from other countries and regions who are interested can buy standardized parts,build the instrument themselves and obtain the desired functionality.Modularity means that its functions,such as fluorescence,bright field,or other modes,or the number of scanning dimensions,can be added or removed as needed based on cost and the desired application.It is an automated and whole-slide imaging microscope that can autofocus,auto-scan,and mosaic images to obtain a large field of view image with high resolution,including bright-field images and fluorescent images.Its automation reduces the need for skilled and experienced operators.In addition,the low cost makes it possible to be applied and spread in resource-constrained settings.An imaging resolution of 1.3?m makes it suitable for some diagnostic tasks,such as checking for parasitic diseases.With the help of such a microscope,advanced telemedicine is possible where minimally trained staff prepare patient samples and take images by our system,which are then sent to remote,experienced doctors via a network,who will make a diagnosis.The low-cost and whole-slide imaging microscope provides a platform and tools that can be developed for many applications beyond microscopic examination of parasites,making them ideal for use in low-cost and portable POCT instruments.After this work,we focused on the cytological examination of cerebrospinal fluid(CSF).Cytological examination of CSF is an important task,particularly in pediatric medicine,but it is still done manually in many domestic hospitals,which is time-consuming and depends on the user experience.CSF cells are sparse,so an automated system can more easily count a large field of view compared to a human observer.To this end,our low-cost and whole-slide imaging microscope can play an ideal role.With sample scanning,we can greatly increase the tested sample volume and ensure an accurate,standardized count.To achieve this research goal,we improved and upgraded the previous system,using custom parts to reduce the system size while improving its functionality and automation.In addition,we developed a sample-preparation-free method for humoral cell detection.Compared to previous methods where the sample must be manually mixed with reagents and then tested,in our system the user merely needs to inject the fluid sample into the sample chamber and put the chamber into the equipment,without doing extra preparation work.Such a simple,automated,sample-to-answer system greatly reduces the workload of the doctors.Operators who have no skills and experience of testing should be able to use the equipment successfully and obtain stable and reliable results.