PixArea

PixArea (freeware) is a simple image processing application, containing an instructive ”green line” menu interface. The tumour area or regions of interest (ROI) can be calculated without microscopy-based image acquisition. The ROI is outlined with a black pen on the HE-stained histological slides. The scanned image will be displayed automatically in the PA application.

The idea is to saturate the ROI with purple and the normal tissue with cyan. The remaining background is coloured white. The program computes the pixels every time the corresponding area in the picture is clicked with the mouse. Pressing the lower “Calculate” button, the numerical value of the tumour area will be displayed as percentage. Pressing the upper “Calculate” button the corresponding tumour area is calculated in square millimetres. Finally, pressing the “Print/Save report” button a report can be produced.

The PixArea-program needs a scanned 24 bitmap picture to work properly. This is because the program is scanning and counting pixels and their RGB-values every time you click the picture. In a scanned 24 bitmap picture you may have thousands of unique colors, which you have to reduce to only four. If your “raw or native” picture has only few different colors, it may be that some unwanted colors interfere with the scanning procedure and you will get odd results. E.g some blue colors will be counted as white etc. SOLUTION: Scan your picture with the PixArea-program -> save it -> open it -> start painting and retouching by following the “green line”.

Download: PixArea