Simplified method of hepatic fibrosis quantification: design of a new morphometric analysis application

Introduction: Semiquantitative evaluation of liver specimens is considered the standard method for measuring fibrosis; however, these systems lack the precision of a quantitative technique. Methods: We developed an image analysis application (FibroXact) that automates and simplifies color segmentation. Trichrome slides were scanned and the program was used to evaluate each pixel based upon hue, lightness, and saturation values. Percent fibrosis was automatically calculated after thresholding. Results: Linear regression demonstrated a strong relationship between the FibroXact result and the semiquantitative result (P < 0.001). Conclusion: We have developed an image analysis application to quantify liver fibrosis. Correlation between our results and a standard semiquantitative system was demonstrated.