Applications of ‘TissueQuant’– A color intensity quantification tool for medical research

This paper demonstrates the use of TissueQuant – an image analysis tool for quantification of color intensities which was developed for use in medical research where the stained biological specimen such as tissue or antigen needs to be quantified. TissueQuant provides facilities for user interaction to choose and quantify the color of interest and its shades. Gaussian weighting functions are used to provide a color score which quantifies how close the shade is to the user specified reference color. We describe two studies in medical research which use TissueQuant for quantification. The first study evaluated the effect of petroleum-ether extract of Cissus quadrangularis (CQ) on osteoporotic rats. It was found that the analysis results correlated well with the manual evaluation, p < 0.001. The second study evaluated the nerve morphometry and it was found that the adipose and non adipose tissue content was maximum in radial nerve among the five nerves studied.

► A new method for color representation is proposed.
► Development of an image analysis tool (TissueQuant) based on this method is reported.
► Use of this tool for bone cell growth analysis and nerve morphometry described.
► TissueQuant provides simple solution for image analysis to medical researchers.