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. 2023;11(5):1652-1660.
doi: 10.1080/21681163.2023.2174776. Epub 2023 Feb 4.

Histology Image Viewer and Converter (HIVC): A High-Speed Freeware Software to View and Convert Whole Slide Histology Images

Sayed Ahmadreza Razian  1 , Majid Jadidi  1
Affiliations

Histology Image Viewer and Converter (HIVC): A High-Speed Freeware Software to View and Convert Whole Slide Histology Images

Sayed Ahmadreza Razian et al. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Eng Imaging Vis. 2023.

Abstract

Histology images are widely used to assess the microstructure of biological tissues, but scanners often save images in bulky SVS and multi-layered TIFF formats. These formats were designed to archive image blocks and high-resolution textual information and are not compatible with conventional image analysis software. Our goal was to create a freeware Histology Image Viewer and Converter (HIVC) with a graphical user interface that allows viewing and converting whole-slide images in batch. HIVC was developed using C# Language for Windows x64 operating system. HIVC's performance was assessed by converting 20 whole-slide images to a JPG format at 20x and 40x resolution and comparing the results to ImageJ, Cell Profiler, QuPath, Nanoborb, and Aperio ImageScope. HIVC was more than 8-times faster in converting images than other software packages. This software allows high-speed batch conversion of histology images to traditional formats, permitting platform-independent secondary analyses.

Keywords: Histology Converter; Image Viewer; Pathology Software.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Histology slide and image of an arterial cross-section demonstrating several magnification levels stored in a pyramid structure.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Histology Image Viewer and Converter (HIVC)’s graphic user interface. The main form contains thumbnails for each image, filename, metadata, and a panel with conversion settings.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Time required to convert 20 WSI files in high, good, and medium quality using HIVC and Aperio ImageScope software.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
structural similarity index measure (SSIM) of the first 5 SVS files reported in Table 3. Higher values show more similarity between the source WSI files and the converted JPEG obtained using Aperio ImageScope and HIVC.
Figure 5 :
Figure 5 :
The main window of nanoBorb, a version of caMicroscope that does not need a server.
Figure 6:
Figure 6:
The view panel of ImageJ (Fiji) and its main toolbar.
Figure 7:
Figure 7:
The main view panel of QuPath.The message shows that QuPath cannot export the WSI file in its original size.
Figure 8:
Figure 8:
The main window and export dialog of Aperio ImageScope.
Figure 9:
Figure 9:
The graphic user interface of CellProfiler showing an opened histology image.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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