DISPLAYING CELLULAR ANALYSIS RESULT DATA USING A

TEMPLATE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[001] 1. Field of the Invention

[002] The present invention relates generally to systems and methods of displaying data and, more specifically, relates to systems and methods for displaying target sample cellular analysis result data and template data in an image.

[003] 2. Description of Related Art

[004] In analyzing results of cellular analyzers of a target sample, physicians need to compare the results with those of a template. Conventional cellular analyzers provide for the display of graphic results in one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional displays that only show the target sample. Physicians who analyze the cellular analysis results must view the graphic results while comparing the image with a template. These template images may be found in a text book or in a separate image. Alternatively, the physician may have a picture of the template image in his mind. In any case, the physician must take these two separate images and compare the two. This may be difficult because the images may not be on the same scale, in the same form of display, etc. This makes the process of analyzing the target sample data inconvenient, inaccurate, time-consuming, and mind-intensive.

[005] As such, there is a need for systems and methods that provide for displaying target sample cellular analysis result data and template data in an image in a manner that enables a physician or user to accurately and efficiently analyze target sample data to identify abnormalities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[006] In accordance with the principles of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, methods and systems consistent with the principles of the present invention provide for systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums of displaying cellular analysis result data including accessing result data of a cellular analyzer, accessing data of at least one template, and displaying the cellular analyzer result data and the data of at least one template by overlaying the cellular analyzer result data and the data of the at least one template, wherein the cellular analyzer result data is displayed using different display attributes from the displayed data of the at least one template.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[007] The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

[008] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention, and, together with the description, explain the features and aspects of the invention. In the drawings,

[009] Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a system environment in which systems and methods, consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention, may be implemented;

[010] Fig. 2 is an exemplary diagram of main components of a computer, consistent with some embodiments of the principles of the present invention;

[011] Fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram of components of a server, consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention;

[012] Fig. 4 depicts an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed by a computer consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention;

[013] Fig. 5 depicts an exemplary display provided to a user consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention;

[014] Fig. 6 depicts an exemplary display provided to a user consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention;

[015] Fig. 7 depicts an exemplary display provided to a user consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention; and

[016] Fig. 8 depicts an exemplary display provided to a user consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[017] Reference will now be made in detail to the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[018] Overview

[019] Methods and systems consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention provide for a system that enables a user to view and/or analyze displayed data representing cellular analyzer test results. Specifically, methods and systems, consistent with some embodiments of the present invention provide for enabling a user to access target sample data, access template data, and to display this data on a display. The target sample data and the template data may be overlaid in the same image. Further, the user may be able to select different display attributes of the target sample data and the template data in such a manner that the user may identify the target sample data separate from the template data. By displaying the target sample data and the template data in a manner consistent with principles of the present invention, a user may be able to see how close or far

away the target sample data is from the template data. Further, the user may be able to determine abnormalities in the target sample.

[020] Cellular Analysis

[021] The present invention may be used to analyze various types of cells, cellular components, body fluids and/or body fluid components. The present invention is particularly useful in analyzing blood samples, which include both a fluid component (serum) and a solid component (various types of cells). In particular, the invention is directed to analyzing cellular components in a blood sample, either whole blood (which contains various types of blood cells) or a cell component fraction. The present invention may also be used to analyze cells obtained from a tissue sample that are separated from connective tissue and suspended in a biologically compatible liquid medium that does not destroy the cells. The present invention may also be used to analyze body fluid samples, platelet rich plasma samples, instrument control fluid samples, etc. The terms "cellular analyzer" and "cellular analysis" are intended to cover at least all of the components as described herein. Further, where target sample data is recited, this term is intended to include target sample cellular analysis result data.

[022] Generation of Raw Data

[023] The body fluids and/or cellular components of body fluids may be subjected to various types of analytical techniques to generate data for analysis and display in accordance with the present invention. The most common techniques are Direct Current to measure the volume of the cell size, Radio Frequency to measure the opacity of the cell, fluorescence, and light scatter to measure the granularity of the cell.

[024] Target Sample Data and Template Data

[025] The target sample data and/or the template data may be in the form of image data including white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), platelets, one-dimensional

histograms from complete blood count (CBC), WBC differential scattergrams in two and/or three dimensions, reticulocyte differential scattergrams in two and/or three dimensions, nucleated red blood cell (NRBC) differential scattergrams in two or three dimensions, WBC differential histograms in surface image; reticulocyte differential histograms in surface image, NRBC differential histograms in surface image, etc.

[026] System Architecture

[027] Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a system environment 100 for implementing the principles of the present invention. The components of system 100 may be implemented through any suitable combinations of hardware, software, and/or firmware. As shown in Fig. 1, system 100 includes a user computer 102. User computer 102 may be communicably linked to a database 104. Alternatively, database 104 may reside directly on network 106 or the contents of database 104 may reside directly on computer 102 or server 108.

[028] System 100 may further include network 106 which may be implemented as the Internet, or any local or wide area network, either public or private. System 100 may further include server 108 and server 108 may be communicably linked to analyzer 110. Analyzer 110 may be implemented as Beckman Coulter hematology instruments, such as LH750™ and LH500™, etc., to generate the test result data.

[029] It may be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that while only one computer 102, database 104, network 106, server 108 and analyzer 110 are depicted, more than one of these types of devices may be implemented in the system consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention. It may further be appreciated that each of these devices may reside in different locations within the system. For example, analyzer 110 may be directly communicably linked to computer 102, wherein computer 102 may receive data from analyzer 110 directly without operating over the network. It may still

further be appreciated that features consistent with principles of the present invention may be implemented solely within computer 102 as a stand-alone unit where all of the data needed to perform the present invention may reside directly on computer 102 and wherein target sample data from analyzer 110 may be input by the user through an external device of computer 102.

[030] Fig. 2 depicts an exemplary block diagram of components included in computer 102. Computer 102 may be any type of computing device, such as a personal computer, workstation, or personal computing device, and may, for example, include memory 202, network interface application 204, input/output devices 206, central processing unit 208, application software 210, and secondary storage 212. Computer 102 may be communicably linked to database 104, server computer 108 and/or analyzer 110.

[031] A user may access network 106 using the network interface application 204, and/or application software 210. Where network 106 may be implemented as the Internet, network interface application 204 may include a conventional browser including conventional browser applications available from Microsoft or Netscape. Application software 210 may include programming instructions for implementing features of the present invention as set forth herein. Application software 210 may include programming instructions for enabling a user to view and/or analyze test result data wherein target sample data is displayed together with template data. Application software 210 may further be implemented as Nevron Chart available from Nevron or MatLab available from Mathworks. Input/output devices 206 may include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a video cam, a display, a storage device, a printer, etc.

[032] Fig. 3 depicts an exemplary block diagram of the components included in server computer 108. Server computer 108 may include memory 302, network interface application 304, input/output devices 306, central processing unit 308, application software 310, and secondary storage 312 consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the

present invention. The components of server computer 108 may be implemented similarly with the components of computer 102.

[033] Functionality

[034] Fig. 4 depicts an exemplary flow diagram of the steps performed by computer 102, consistent with some embodiments of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 4, upon identification of the target sample data by the user to analyze, computer 102, through application software 310, accesses target sample data (Step 402). Target sample data may be data representing analysis results of cells performed by analyzer 110. This data may be stored on computer 102, stored in database 102, or on server 108. Upon identification of the template data by the user to analyze, computer 102, through software application 310, accesses template data (Step 404). Template data represents standard data to which the target sample is compared. Template data may represent, for example, an average of many samples, an average of many samples where extraneous data is removed, etc. Template data may be stored on computer 102, stored in database 102, or on server 108.

[035] Once the target sample and template data are accessed, software application 310 makes a determination is made whether or not to pre-process the data to remove any extraneous data (Step 406). For example, if the target sample data was pre-processed at analyzer 110, at server 108, or at computer 102, there may be no need to pre-process the data. If a determination is made that the data should be pre-processed (Step 406, Yes), then the target sample data and/or the template data is pre-processed using known methods, for example, filtering (linear, non- linear, low pass, median), remove outliers, etc., to remove any extraneous data, noise, etc. from the data. Once the data is pre-processed, processing then proceeds to Step 410. If a determination is made that the data should not be preprocessed (Step 406, No), then processing proceeds to Step 410. The determination may be made by the user or may be pre-programmed in the application.

[036] The system may then display both the target sample data and template data on the same display (Step 410), wherein the target sample data and the template data are displayed in such a manner that the two sets of data are displayed using different display attributes. For example, the two sets of data may be differentiated by color, texture, brightness, transparency, smoothness, etc. These different display characteristics may be selected by the user or may be pre-selected by software application 310. The sample target data and the template data may be displayed as a one-dimensional histogram, a two- dimensional histogram, a three-dimensional histogram, a one-dimensional scattergram, two- dimensional scattergram, a three-dimensional scattergram, a three-dimensional surface image of a two-dimensional amplitude distribution (histogram), etc.

[037] Displays

[038] Figs. 5-8 depict exemplary displays provided to user upon completion of the process set forth in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 depicts CBC histograms displayed consistent with the principles of the present invention. In each histogram, the target sample data is depicted as a line and the template data is depicted as a shaded area. The first histogram represents an overlay display of the target sample data and the template data of WBC. The second histogram represents an overlay display of the target sample data and the template data of RBC and the third histogram represents an overlay display of the target sample data and the template data of the platelet (PLT). One skilled in the art may appreciate that by having the target sample data and the template data displayed in the same display, it is easier to see how the two sets of data relate to each other thus saving time and speeding up the diagnosis process.

[039] Fig. 6 depicts an exemplary display of an overlay of a two-dimensional histogram consistent with the principles of some embodiments of the present invention. As

shown in Fig. 6, the target sample data is depicted as dots and the template data is depicted as transparent ovals.

[040] Fig. 7 depicts an exemplary display of an overlay display of a three- dimensional histogram. As shown in Fig. 7, the target sample data is displayed as dots and the template data is displayed as transparent textured ovals.

[041 ] Fig. 8 depicts an exemplary display of an overlay display of a three- dimensional surface of a two-dimensional amplitude histogram. As shown in Fig. 8, the target sample data is displayed as a dark surface while the template data is displayed as a transparent lighter surface.

[042] Alternatively, in accordance with principles consistent with some embodiments of the present invention, different display attributes may be implemented to further differentiate the different data sets. For example, in Fig. 8, the target sample data may be depicted in one color while the template data may be depicted in a different color. It may further be appreciated that one or more display characteristics may be employed to differentiate the data sets. For example, in Fig. 7, the target sample may be displayed as red dots while the template data may be displayed as gray ovals.

[043] Template Data

[044] The template data used within system 100 may be standard template data or may be customizable by the physician. The template data may represent a normal and healthy sample or an abnormal sample. Standard template data is data that may be deliberately selected and processed using thousands of samples. Further, by using a preset template, noise and bias may be removed and, ultimately, may be more objective than that summarized or provided by any user. Further, there may be different template data for each variable in an analysis, providing for a multi-variable or multi-parameter analysis. In addition, there may be different templates representing in one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional

form in order to provide more data to compare with the target sample data. In order to provide the template data in accordance with the present invention, it is possible to obtain multiple specific disease templates with a current patient sample or target sample. For each variable, there may be one or several collections, or libraries of templates. These collections of templates may be provided with the software application, may be created by the user, may be available at a server on network 106, etc.

[045] Alternatively, the template may be customized by the user. The user may be able to save a sample as a new template. Alternatively, software application may be able to let the user select a group of samples to be averaged to create a new template. These new templates may be added to the collection of templates, be used to create new collections of template, etc. Template collections may be shared between users.

[046] By providing the template data as discussed herein, the target sample may be compared with the template in order to identify abnormalities in the target sample based on, for example, special graphic patterns that may appear in the display. These abnormalities may include chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic myologenous leukemia (CML), acute myologenous leukemia (AML), defects in hemoglobin, for example, Thalassemia, etc., sickle cell crisis, etc.

[047] Conclusion

[048] Modifications and adaptations of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. The foregoing description of an implementation of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not exhaustive and does not limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from the practicing of the invention. For example, the described implementation includes software, but systems and methods consistent with the

present invention may be implemented as a combination of hardware and software or hardware alone.

[049] Additionally, although aspects of the present invention are described for being stored in memory, one skilled in the art will appreciate that these aspects can also be stored on other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, for example, hard disks, floppy disks, or CD-ROM; the Internet or other propagation medium; or other forms of RAM or ROM.