Identification, Tracking and Visualization of Platelets in Intravital Microscopy

Abstract

Intravital microscopy permits observation of live events in intact tissues to study a variety of issues, including quantifying cell-vessel wall interactions. The analysis of the parameters is labor-intensive, subjective and limited to broad categories of blood cell-vessel wall interactions. We are developing an algorithmic approach that aids in analysis, automatically and objectively detects and tracks platelets, and expands information derived from such videos. We integrate computer vision and break the identification, tracking and visualization into steps. We enable simple and computationally efficient means of eliminating movement within a video based on positively shifting of an identified feature and visualize platelet paths.