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"PV-WAVE’s graphics are extremely
helpful in allowing us to analyze biochemical and swelling changes
in images of small animal joints. Manual processing would be entirely
too tedious."
-Charlene Flahiff, Research Analyst,
Duke University Biomedical Engineering Department
QUICK
FACTS
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Biomedical researcher must identify changes in cartilage tissue of osteoarthritis specimens
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PV-WAVE graphics are used to measure swelling changes and biochemical changes in
the tissue
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The researcher can analyze microscopic images in
great detail, which would be too tedious to process
manually
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THE PROBLEM
In the Biomedical Engineering department at Duke University,
research analyst Charlene Flahiff in Dr. Lori Setton’s laboratory
strives to understand the mechanics of osteoarthritis. Her
research
contributes to understanding why osteoarthritis occurs and what
therapies or drugs might help delay or cure the disease.
To better understand why osteoarthritis occurs, Ms. Flahiff works
with geneticists to test the effects of different genetic mutations
on mice. Oddly enough, mice knees are similar to human knees
when studying the mechanics of osteoarthritis. She tests normal and mutant
mouse
specimens at different time intervals (3 months, 6 months and
9 months) to determine the effects of age and mutation on the
disease.
To understand the mechanics of osteoarthritis in the mice, Ms.
Flahiff must analyze both swelling changes and biochemical changes.
Measuring swelling in cartilage of mice requires using the cells
as markers. Since mice knees are so small, processing these images
of cells can be challenging. A confocal microscope captures the
images of the cells but Flahiff needed a way to measure the amount
of the swelling in the mice knees.
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Image of mouse cartilage-bone sample
used to calculate swelling strain
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Image of mouse tissue sample used
to calculate biochemical changes
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The Solution
To collect the swelling data, the cartilage cells are tracked
using black and white images. Ms. Flahiff uses PV-WAVE on
a Windows XP platform to analyze the black and white two-dimensional
images of the mice cells. To analyze the biochemical changes,
Ms. Flahiff first stains the mouse cartilage tissue and then
captures the images through a microscope. PV-WAVE processes
the red, green, and blue color images digitally with the
red color used to quantify the density of charged
molecules, or “fixed charge density”, which is a measurement
of the biochemistry.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Ms. Flahiff believes that analyzing images similar to those processed
by PV-WAVE would require manual calculations, which would be
entirely too tedious to complete.
WORLD CLASS PRODUCTS, SERVICES,
AND SUPPORT
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Industry
Education
Application
Analyzing cellular and
tissue images to uncover the causes of and treatments for Osteoarthritis
Product
PV-WAVE
Consistently ranked as one of the top biomedical engineering
(BME)
programs in the nation, Duke BME research activities include
biomechanics of blood flow, cells, and hard and soft tissues; biomolecular
and tissue engineering;
electrical activity of the heart; neuroengineering; and biomedical
optics, biophotonics and ultrasound imaging systems. Duke BME faculty
and students collaborate with many
departments across the University and the Medical Center.
Key Benefits
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Faster image processing |
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Accurate image processing down
to the cellular level |
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Excellent image quality |
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