Why Is Fourier Ptychography Important in Digital Pathologyr

Why Is Fourier Ptychography Important in Digital Pathology?

Fourier Ptychography is pivotal in digital pathology for its ability to enhance resolution and image quality beyond conventional limits. This technique combines computational imaging with iterative algorithms to reconstruct high-resolution images from low-resolution measurements, enabling detailed examination of tissue structures and cellular components. By advancing image quality and resolution capabilities, Fourier Ptychography holds promise in revolutionizing diagnostic accuracy and research in digital pathology.

Synopsis

The Fourier ptychography technique is widely used in digital pathology. As someone who works with traditional and digital microscopy, you need to know that Fourier ptychography helps you overcome the limitations traditional microscopy has regarding resolution and depth of field. Fourier ptychography allows you to combine multiple images of a sample taken under different illumination angles. Some cases cannot be properly assessed using standard techniques, whether in traditional or digital pathology. You need a special, precise technique. Major advantages of Fourier ptychography are accuracy, detailed analysis, and preciseness. If you work with complex cases that require detailed and precise analysis, especially when it comes to setting an accurate and precise diagnosis, Fourier ptychography is the right solution. Learn more about the major advantages and the importance of Fourier ptychography in your laboratory. 

What Is Fourier Ptychography?

Fourier ptychography is a computational imaging technique that can help you overcome limitations that can hinder the accuracy of pathological analysis. The technique combines multiple images of a specimen taken under different illumination angles to produce a high-quality and high-resolution image. It is an advanced imaging technique that holds great promise in digital pathology. The Fourier ptychography technique involves capturing a sequence of low-resolution images of a sample under different illumination angles. You can subsequently merge these images by using Fourier transforms to produce a single high-tech resolution image.

How Does Fourier Ptychography Work?

Fourier ptychography is a relatively new technique that involves high-resolution and a wide field of view for giga-pixel histology images. It first acquires a sequence of low-resolution images of a sample under variable-angle illumination. It then combines these images by using a novel phase retrieval algorithm to improve the employed microscope’s resolution beyond its conventional limit. Fourier ptychography’s captured phase map can also extract additional information about the scattering properties of a histology sample. The scattering properties of a tissue sample are directly tied to its refractive index profile.

A New Imaging Modality

Refractive index maps can successfully distinguish, especially when it comes to differentiating healthy and cancerous cells in digitized histology slide images. Also, cancer can manifest itself within the cell nucleus as a slight index of refraction shift, which can be challenging. New imaging modalities like Fourier ptychography involve high-resolution gigapixel digital pathology images without requiring any mechanically moving parts. The phase information acquired through Fourier ptychography provides valuable inputs about the sample’s local scattering and reduced scattering coefficients.

Fourier Ptychography Advantages

Digital pathology, along with Fourier ptychography, is a rapidly evolving field that is attracting attention from researchers and healthcare professionals alike. This technique has the potential to revolutionize the way you diagnose and treat diseases because you can provide more detailed and more accurate images of the samples you observe.   

  1. Greater depth of field: One of the key advantages of Fourier ptychography is its ability to provide images with a greater depth of field. Traditional microscopy techniques have limited depth of field, which means that only a small portion of the specimen can be in focus at a given time. The Fourier ptychography technique overcomes this limitation by capturing images at different focus depths and combining them to produce a single image with a greater depth of field.  
  1. High-resolution images: Fourier ptychography uses the combination of multiple images that are taken under different illumination angles to create high-resolution images. This allows you to examine samples with a greater level of detail, which leads to better patient diagnosis and better outcomes from patient treatment.  
  1. Three-dimensional images: It is also possible to create three-dimensional samples of the images by using Fourier ptychography. This can be helpful if you study the spatial distribution of cells and tissues within a sample. Fourier ptychography can provide valuable insights into the structure and function of biological systems, which can be used to develop new treatments and therapies when it comes to treating diseases. 

Importance of Fourier ptychography

Today, cancer is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and an accurate diagnosis is essential for effective treatment. If you still apply traditional microscopy techniques, it is worthwhile to know that those microscopy techniques can sometimes miss small tumors or misdiagnose them as benign. That can cause delays in treatment and poorer outcomes of the same treatment. Fourier ptychography helps you overcome these limitations by giving you the possibility of high-resolution images that detect even small tumors and determine a very precise diagnosis. Within digital pathology, this technique is used in a wide range of applications. 

Conclusion

Fourier ptychography is an important technique widely used in modern digital pathology. It helps you get more accurate, precise, and detailed results. It can raise your research or diagnostics work to a new level and help you improve the way you work with specimens. Fourier ptychography is helpful in cancer research and setting up the diagnosis of cancer disease. High-resolution images can detect even small tumors and set the right diagnosis without being misleading, as is the case with traditional microscopy. PreciPoint’s microscopes and scanners help you observe and interpret high-resolution images to achieve the best results faster. You analyze high-quality digital images from various angles and combine them to observe the specimen more easily and in a more detailed manner.