Digital Measurement of Myelofibrosis Associated Platelet Derived Growth Factor Receptor ß (PDGFR ß) Expression in Bone Marrow Biopsies

Abstract

In daily routine the reticulin silver staining is used on bone marrow biopsy samples as a gold standard for the characterization of myelofibrosis, however this method does not provide information about the prefibrotic stage.

Recently a specific immunohistochemical method was introduced which may overcome these weaknesses of reticulin staining. Activated fibroblasts responsible for stromal proliferation are highlighted by increased PDGFR β expression, which can be presented by immunohistochemistry in bone marrow samples. Using this staining the pre-fibrotic stage can become detectable and we have information about the disease activity.

During development of new staining method it is important to prove its reliability and usability. In this paper we introduce a digital image processing method to measure paranchymal damage in digitalized histological slides that can aid correct interpretation of the staining.