Method for accurate registration of tissue autofluorescence imaging data with corresponding histology: a means for enhanced tumor margin assessment

Abstract

An important step in establishing the diagnostic potential for emerging optical imaging techniques I accurate registration between imaging data and the corresponding tissue histopathology typically used as gold standard in clinical diagnostics. We present a method to precisely register data acquired with a point-scanning spectroscopic imaging technique from fresh surgical tissue specimen blocks with corresponding histological sections. Using a visible aiming beam to augment point-scanning multispectral time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on video images, we evaluate two different markers for the registration with histology: fiducial markers using a 405-nm CW laser and the tissue block’s outer shape characteristics. We compare the registration performance with benchmark methods using either the fiducial markers or the outer shape characteristics alone to a hybrid method using both feature types. The hybrid method was found to perform best reaching an average error of 0.78 _ 0.67 mm. This method provides a profound framework to validate diagnostical abilities of optical fiber-based techniques and furthermore enables the application of supervised machine learning techniques to automate tissue characterization.