Rapid and automatic detection of micronuclei in binucleated lymphocytes image

Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 10;12(1):3913. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-07936-4.

Abstract

Cytokinesis block micronucleus (CBMN) assay is a widely used radiation biological dose estimation method. However, the subjectivity and the time-consuming nature of manual detection limits CBMN for rapid standard assay. The CBMN analysis is combined with a convolutional neural network to create a software for rapid standard automated detection of micronuclei in Giemsa stained binucleated lymphocytes images in this study. Cell acquisition, adhesive cell mass segmentation, cell type identification, and micronucleus counting are the four steps of the software's analysis workflow. Even when the cytoplasm is hazy, several micronuclei are joined to each other, or micronuclei are attached to the nucleus, this algorithm can swiftly and efficiently detect binucleated cells and micronuclei in a verification of 2000 images. In a test of 20 slides, the software reached a detection rate of 99.4% of manual detection in terms of binucleated cells, with a false positive rate of 14.7%. In terms of micronuclei detection, the software reached a detection rate of 115.1% of manual detection, with a 26.2% false positive rate. Each image analysis takes roughly 0.3 s, which is an order of magnitude faster than manual detection.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cytokinesis
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted* / methods
  • Lymphocytes*
  • Micronuclei, Chromosome-Defective
  • Micronucleus Tests / methods