Survey: interpolation methods for whole slide image processing

J Microsc. 2017 Feb;265(2):148-158. doi: 10.1111/jmi.12477. Epub 2016 Sep 29.

Abstract

Evaluating whole slide images of histological and cytological samples is used in pathology for diagnostics, grading and prognosis . It is often necessary to rescale whole slide images of a very large size. Image resizing is one of the most common applications of interpolation. We collect the advantages and drawbacks of nine interpolation methods, and as a result of our analysis, we try to select one interpolation method as the preferred solution. To compare the performance of interpolation methods, test images were scaled and then rescaled to the original size using the same algorithm. The modified image was compared to the original image in various aspects. The time needed for calculations and results of quantification performance on modified images were also compared. For evaluation purposes, we used four general test images and 12 specialized biological immunohistochemically stained tissue sample images. The purpose of this survey is to determine which method of interpolation is the best to resize whole slide images, so they can be further processed using quantification methods. As a result, the interpolation method has to be selected depending on the task involving whole slide images.

Keywords: Biomedical engineering; image interpolation; image processing; microscopic images; whole slide images.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cytological Techniques / methods
  • Histocytochemistry / methods
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Models, Theoretical*