Virtual Microscopy Promotes Objective Diagnosis

An innovative slide scanner creates virtual microscopy by making it practical to digitize entire slides of patient material for automatic microscopic inspection on a computer monitor in pathology, cytology, hematology, and related fields.

Instead of looking at a glass slide through the eyepieces of a microscope, scientists can now view a digital image of an entire slide on a display monitor with full panning and zooming capabilities. Called ScanScope, the slide scanner is expected to increase productivity and more-objective diagnoses. ScanScope is an alternative to image tiling, which requires hours to capture and "stitch together” thousands of individual small regions from a microscopic slide. Unlike the stop-and-go nature of image tiling, ScanScope moves the microscope slide continuously, providing a seamless virtual slide in about five minutes.

The slide scanner was introduced by DakoCytomation (Copenhagen, Denmark) in partnership with Aperio Technologies (Vista, CA, USA).

"ScanScope helps the pathologist to a better interpretation of the patient sample and it also gives the opportunity to pass on a picture file of the patient sample to seek expert advice in difficult cases,” noted Jes Ostergaard, CEO of DakoCytomation.





Related Links:
DakoCytomation
Aperio