SlideImaging 2010: a computer-aided system for Indirect Immunofluorescence analysis
Project Objectives
The aim of the project is to develop a new biomedical tool in the field of immuno-rheumatology to provide a set of useful diagnosis features. These tools, based on digital image and/or signal processing and analysis, are also known as Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD). The correct interpretation of the presence of autoantibodies in patients’ serum is crucial for a correct diagnosis and prognosis of almost all systemic autoimmune diseases (MAS).
Despite the development of other laboratory methods that can be easily automated and standardized, indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) is still a unique method for the identification of some of the most important autoantibodies including anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies (anti-dsDNA) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), which represent the most practical clinical marker for autoimmune diseases.
However, IIF has intrinsic problems, such as a low level of standardization, operator-dependent subjectivity, which limits its reproducibility, inter-operator variability and especially a lack of automation. Automation, which has already entered several areas of laboratory medicine, could offer a solution to these limitations also in systemic autoimmune diseases thus allowing for easier and quicker execution/reporting, higher reproducibility, greater standardization and cost reductions.
The aim of the project is to develop a new product that extends and improves the features developed in SlideImaging, structured according to the following objectives:
- To broadly extend the clinical validation of the classification system of fluorescence intensity, which could possibly involve other Research Centers specialized in the field
- To automatically identify the regions of samples containing useful information for diagnosis
- To extend the panel of IIF patterns on HEp-2 cells and therefore the antigen-antibody specificity, which are recognizable by the current system, suitable for the differential diagnosis of different autoimmune diseases
- To apply the knowledge acquired from previous projects to substrates that are different from HEp-2 cells, such as Chritidiae Luciliae (anti-dsDNA). These autoantibodies play a very useful diagnostic and prognostic role for some diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus.
Start/End Date
October 1, 2010 - September 30, 2013
Principal Investigators
- Prof. Giulio Iannello
- Ing. Paolo Soda
Host Institution
Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome
Other Institutions involved
Das s.r.l.
Source of funding
FILAS, art. 182 comma 4 letter c Regional Law 04/06 – PST, ITINERIS2.