Premalignant and Malignant Cells in Sputum From Lung Cancer Patients

Thomas Neumann, Michael G. Meyer, Florence W. Patten, Fred L. Johnson, Yener S. Erozan, William J. Frable, Prabodh K. Gupta, Muhammad B. Zaman, and Alan C. Nelson. Cancer Cytopathology 117 (2009) 473-481

Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the frequency of premalignant and malignant cells in sputum from patients with lung cancer and to measure the dependence of these cells on cancer stage, histologic type, tumor size, and tumor location.

Automated cell analysis in 2D and 3D: A comparative study

Michael G. Meyer, Mark Fauver, J. Richard Rahn, Thomas Neumann, Florence W. Patten, Eric J. Seibel, and Alan C. Nelson. Pattern Recognition 42 (2009) 141-146

Abstract
Optical projection tomographic microscopy is a technique that allows 3D analysis of individual cells. Theoretically, 3D morphometry would more accurately capture cellular features than 2D morphometry. To evaluate this thesis, classifiers based on 3D reconstructions of cell nuclei were compared with 2D images from the same nuclei. Human adenocarcinoma and normal lung epithelium cells were used. Testing demonstrated a three-fold reduction in the false negative rate for adenocarcinoma detection in 3D versus 2D at the same high specificity. We conclude that 3D imaging will potentially expand the horizon for automated cell analysis with broad applications in the biological sciences.

Three-dimensional imaging of single isolated cell nuclei using  optical projection tomography

Mark Fauver & Eric J. Seibel, J. Richard Rahn, Michael G. Meyer, Florence W. Patten, Thomas Neumann, and Alan C. Nelson. Optics Express 13 (2005) 4210-4223

Abstract
A method is presented for imaging single isolated cell nuclei in 3D, employing computed tomographic image reconstruction. The system uses a scanning objective lens to create an extended depth-of-field (DOF) image similar to a projection or shadowgram. A microfabricated inverted v-groove allows a microcapillary tube to be rotated with sub-micron precision, and refractive index matching within 0.02 both inside and outside the tube keeps optical distortion low. Cells or bare cell nuclei are injected into the tube and imaged in 250 angular increments from 0 to 180 degrees to collect 250 extended DOF images. After these images are further aligned, the filtered backprojection algorithm is applied to compute the 3D image. To estimate the cutoff spatial frequency in the projection image, a spatial frequency ratio function is calculated by comparing the extended depth-of-field image of a typical cell nucleus to the fixed focus image. To assess loss of resolution from fixed focus image to extended DOF image to 3D reconstructed image, the 10-90% rise distance is measured for a dyed microsphere. The resolution is found to be 0.9 µm for both extended DOF images and 3D reconstructed images. Surface and translucent volume renderings and cross-sectional slices of the 3D images are shown of a stained nucleus from fibroblast and cancer cell cultures with added color histogram mapping to highlight 3D chromatin structure.