Pathol Res Pract. 2013 Nov 14. pii: S0344-0338(13)00228-8. doi: 10.1016/j.prp.2013.09.002. [Epub ahead of print]

Use of automated image analysis in evaluation of Mesothelioma Tissue Microarray (TMA) from NationalMesothelioma Virtual Bank

Amin W¹, Srinivasan M², Song SY³, Parwani AV², Becich MJ².

Author information

• ¹Department of Biomedical Informatics, Department of Pathology at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States. Electronic address: waa8@pitt.edu.
• ²Department of Biomedical Informatics, Department of Pathology at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
• ³Department of Pathology and Biobank, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

The National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB) was established to provide annotated biospecimens to the mesothelioma research community. The resource provides tissue microarrays (TMA) to evaluate the biomarkers along with a variety of other resected mesothelioma specimens. In this manuscript, we describe the immunohistochemical evaluation of the mesothelioma TMA with three key antibodies that are used in making the diagnosis of mesothelioma, and compared the immunohistochemical assessment between manual scoring and image analysis. The TMA was assessed for the immunohistochemical expression of calretinin (N=39), cytokeratin (CK) 5/6 (N=33), and D2-40 (N=37). Immunohistochemistry was evaluated by semi-quantitative (manual) scoring using light microscope (MS) and by automated image analysis (AS). Calretinin staining was seen in both cytoplasmic and nuclear locations. CK5/6 stain was localized to the cytoplasm. D2-40 stain showed only membranous expression in our cases. Our study confirms that the immunohistochemical staining pattern of mesotheliomas in the NMVB UPMC TMA is similar to other studies. Our findings also show that automated image analysis provides similar results to manual scoring by pathologists, and provides a reproducible, objective, and accurate platform for immunohistochemical assessment of biomarker expression.