Enhancing frozen histological section images using permanent-section-guided deep learning with nuclei attention

TL;DR

This paper introduces a deep learning method that enhances rapid frozen histological images by leveraging permanent section guidance, focusing on nuclei regions to improve diagnostic detail without artificial data generation.

Contribution

The proposed segmented attention network uniquely enhances frozen images using permanent section guidance, emphasizing nuclei details and avoiding artificial data creation, improving diagnostic accuracy.

Findings

Significant enhancement of frozen images across multiple tissue types.

Improved diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in histology workflows.

Real-time enhancement within seconds, compatible with existing labs.

Abstract

In histological pathology, frozen sections are often used for rapid diagnosis during surgeries, as they can be produced within minutes. However, they suffer from artifacts and often lack crucial diagnostic details, particularly within the cell nuclei region. Permanent sections, on the other hand, contain more diagnostic detail but require a time-intensive preparation process. Here, we present a generative deep learning approach to enhance frozen section images by leveraging guidance from permanent sections. Our method places a strong emphasis on the nuclei region, which contains critical information in both frozen and permanent sections. Importantly, our approach avoids generating artificial data in blank regions, ensuring that the network only enhances existing features without introducing potentially unreliable information. We achieve this through a segmented attention network, incorporating nuclei-segmented images during training and adding an additional loss function to refine the nuclei details in the generated permanent images. We validated our method across various tissues, including kidney, breast, and colon. This approach significantly improves histological efficiency and diagnostic accuracy, enhancing frozen section images within seconds, and seamlessly integrating into existing laboratory workflows.