Histology Workflow

Load the Slide Tray

BIOQUANT SCAN supports two kinds of slide trays for histology. A 4X vertical slide tray that can hold 1 to 4 75x25mm slides vertically. A 2X rotating slide tray that can hold a single 75x50mm slide or two 75x25mm slides in any orientation.

Draw the Scan Areas

Draw the scan areas at low power, even across multiple fields of view. Scan at high power. BIOQUANT support up to 8 simultaneous scan areas. Scans are color coded in rainbow order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.

BIOQUANT SCAN only collects images inside the scan areas. The rest of the image will be filled with white (brightfield) or black (fluorescence). This reduces the scan time significantly for irregularly shaped tissue.

Adjust the Camera

For brightfield (transmitted light) imaging, at the objective where the scans will be collected, the Jenoptik camera’s live background correction is enabled to ensure color accuracy and even illumination. This creates the seamless final image.

Label the Scan Areas

Each of the scan areas defined earlier is given a label. These labels will be the filenames of the different scans.

Configure Focus Correction

BIOQUANT SCAN, when equipped with the automatic focus correction components, will periodically check the image focus and adjust accordingly. Focus can be checked once per scan area, or every few fields.

For challenging histology, where the optimal focus is ambiguous, auto focus can be disabled in favor of periodic manual focus correction.

Start the Scans

Scan progress is monitored several convenient ways. The Overview window in the bottom right corner shows a map of the scan areas and the current location of BIOQUANT SCAN. The “You Are Here” box moves as BIOQUANT SCAN collects images.

Additionally, the Perform Scan region shows two progress bars: one the total number of scans and on for the images to be collected in the current scan.

Audit the Scans

Once the scan are complete, they can be loaded as a group for review. Rescanning is quick and simple. There is no need to redefine the scan areas.

Annotate with Scale Bars

Stamp tools allow images to be annotated with arrows, text, and scale bars.

Export Scans as Needed

If the scans will be used in BIOQUANT for analysis, the BIF format scans can be used directly in BIOQUANT OSTEO or BIOQUANT LIFESCIENCE. BIF format images are internally calibrated. If the scans will be used elsewhere, they can be batch exported to TIF.