The Daily Scan

University of Leeds Embraces Virtual Microscopy with Aperio ScanScope Systems

Aperio announced today another successful ScanScope® System implementation at the University of Leeds, one of the top research universities in the UK.

"After a competitive EU tendering process we are pleased to place an order with Aperio for five systems. Our current system has proved robust and provides high quality images that are available on www.virtualpathology.leeds.ac.uk," explained Professor Phil Quirke of the Academic Unit of Pathology, University of Leeds. "The Aperio system has allowed us to improve our research and bioinformatic systems and we are evaluating its role in routine reporting and clinical trials."

The University of Leeds has scanned over 10,000 slides for its educational, assessment testing, and tissue bank programs, and expects that number to ramp sharply with the addition of the five new systems. All of the ScanScope Systems selected by the university support high-throughput automated scanning and utilize Aperio's Digital Slide Information Management Software to manage the increased volume of digital slides. In addition, the university expects to benefit from use of Aperio's Magnification Changer option that enables users to double image resolution without the need for a second objective lens.

Please click here to read the entire press release.

Aperio And Roper Scientific Sign Distribution Agreement

Aperio and Roper Scientific, Inc.'s Photometrics division announced a distribution agreement whereby Nippon Roper, Roper's Japanese subsidiary, will exclusively market and support Aperio's line of ScanScope® Systems in Japan and China.

This is awesome - we have a great partner for distribution in Japan and China.  Nothing like local knowledge and experience.

Please click here to read the entire press release.

Release 7 - 3D Revisit

Perhaps the most exciting new feature in Release 7 is 3D Revisit.

3D Revisit enables regions of interested from a digital slide to be selected for z-stack capture.  A z-stack is a series of images taken at different focal depths.  3D Revisit provides a real-time through-focus (depth) view of a specimen, and is particularly useful for cytology specimens, frozen sections and other "thick specimen" applications.  Z-stack scans are acquired from the original glass slide and can be stored in the ScanScope digital slide image file for subsequent 3-D viewing.

3D Revisit is an enhancement built into the ImageScope viewer.  A window is opened in the viewer which allows you to connect directly to a ScanScope scanner.  You can view thumbnails of all the slides on the stage (up to five), and then select one to "3D Revisit".  You then view a 2D scan of the slide as usual, with full freedom to pan and zoom throughout the slide.  (As with all ScanScope digital slides, the entire slide is available at the highest resolution.)

A new tool enables you to select a region for 3D Revisit.  You specify the size of the region, the depth of the Z-stack to be acquired, and the number of layers you want in the stack.  The Z-stack is captured by the ScanScope and stored on the ImageServer server along with the 2D high-res scan.  Next the Z-stack is overlaid on top of the 2D scan.  A new Focus slider appears which lets you "focus" through the Z-stack!

You can capture as many Z-stacks as you want, and they are all stored on the server for later viewing.  3D Revisit capture requires that the original slide be mounted in the ScanScope, but later views do not - you don't even have to connect back to the ScanScope for later viewing.  In fact, the 2D scan and its associated 3D Revisit Z-stacks can be copied to a DVD for offline viewing.

3D Revisit processing can even be performed as part of a Digital Slide Conferencing session, allowing many people at different locations to view the 2D high-res scan together with the 3D Revisit overlays.  Conferencing can be used while the 3D Revisit regions are captured, and/or later for digital slide viewing.

Release 7

We're in the middle of testing release 7, the next release of Aperio software.  In the next few days I'm going to post about some of the new features and other stuff we've included in the release.  Your comments will be welcome!

Aperio has a software suite which accompanies each ScanScope scanner.  There are a number of different components, but the suite is released as a unit to make sure all the parts play nice.  It is easier for us to test everything together than to test all the permutations.  We do try to maintain backward-compatibility so it isn't necessary to upgrade all your computers at once.

The best reference for the components of the suite is the Notes & News document which accompanies each release.  Here's the Release 6 Notes & News (PDF), in case you don't have it already.  This is a great reference which not only tells you about the release, but also about each of the components.  And it has installation instructions and upgrade considerations.  The Release 7 Notes & News is still being prepared, but I'll link it here as soon as it is available.