Integration of geoscience frameworks into digital pathology analysis permits quantification of microarchitectural relationships in histological landscapes

Abstract

Although gold-standard histological assessment is subjective it remains central to diagnosis and clinical trial protocols and is crucial for the evaluation of any preclinical disease model. Objectivity and reproducibility are enhanced by quantitative analysis of histological images but current methods require application-specific algorithm training and fail to extract understanding from the histological context of observable features. We reinterpret histopathological images as disease landscapes to describe a generalisable framework defining topographic relationships in tissue using geoscience approaches. The framework requires no user-dependent training to operate on all image datasets in a classifier-agnostic manner but is adaptable and scalable, able to quantify occult abnormalities, derive mechanistic insights, and define a new feature class for machine-learning diagnostic classification. We demonstrate application to inflammatory, fibrotic and neoplastic disease in multiple organs, including the detection and quantification of occult lobular enlargement in the liver secondary to hilar obstruction. We anticipate this approach will provide a robust class of histological data for trial stratification or endpoints, provide quantitative endorsement of experimental models of disease, and could be incorporated within advanced approaches to clinical diagnostic pathology.