Software-Based Improvement of Image Information
Figure 6: Variability of morphologic appearance in several activated throm- bocytes. All images were rendered with Photozoom, Picolay, and Combine. Additional HDR rendering was performed in images a–c, including Photo- matix Pro and Details Enhancer. In b, Tone Compressor was also used. Image width=16.8 μm
functional considerations. In activated thrombocytes, pseu- dopodia (projections) are required for locomotion, interaction with other pseudopodia and damaged areas of vessels, and aggregation and adhesion with other thrombocytes. Sausage- shaped pseudopodia are the most oſten observed and described
Figure 8: Morphological changes and kinetics of platelet activation in cover slip preparations (derived from [4]). Hypothetical graphs of normal individuals (red) and patients treated with antiplatelet therapy (green). Sketches of
thrombocyte shape indicate that pseudopodia projections
appear after about 15 minutes elapsed time and begin to disappear after about 40 minutes.
type (Figure 6a) and may play a primary role in clot formation. Spike-shaped pseudopodia (Figure 6b) may give enhanced sta- bility when thrombocytes are fixed on a smooth matrix, and discoid apices (Figure 6c) may promote strong adherence to flat surfaces. Previous electron microscopy studies [3,13–15] have shown that the apical regions of thrombocyte pseudopo- dia may also act as reservoirs of various mediators deposited in small granules. Loop-shaped pseudopodia (Figure 6d) may serve as “connectors” when several thrombocytes connect in string-like aggregates. Of course, based on the static images presented here, these considerations are hypothetical. How- ever, they may provide insight into the functional roles of the various thrombocyte morphologies. Te shape of pseudopo- dia shown here correspond with their morphological appear- ance documented in SEM images [16] Te soſtware-based processing described here leads to sub-
Figure 7: Images from Figure 6 digitally inverted. 2019 July •
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stantial improvements in the global visual information and qual- ity in images, especially when small structures are documented and sized at the given resolution limit. Tese improvements may also be of clinical interest. Recently, the first prototypes of systems have been developed which can be used for automatic and standardized morphological analyses of living thromboc- cytes [4,17]. Tus, the process of activation can be documented and quantified in healthy persons and in patients treated with a
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