Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

BECKMAN COULTER, INC.

Beckman Coulter develops, manufactures and markets laboratory systems, reagents, centrifugation, lab automation, elec... read more Featured Products: More products

Download Mobile App




Artificial Intelligence Helps Diagnose Leukemia

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 29 Sep 2021
Multi-parameter flow cytometry (MFC) is a cornerstone in clinical decision making for leukemia and lymphoma. MFC data analysis requires manual gating of cell populations, which is time-consuming, subjective, and often limited to a two-dimensional space.

Typical symptoms of malignant B-cell lymphomas and related leukemias are that the lymph nodes become swollen, there is weight loss and fatigue, as well as fevers and infections. If such a cancer of the lymphatic system is suspected, the physician takes a blood or bone marrow sample and sends it to specialized laboratories for flow cytometry analysis.

Clinical Scientists and Bioinformaticians associated with University of Bonn (Bonn, Germany) and colleagues from other institutions present a workflow that allows existing artificial intelligence (AI) to adapt to multiple MFC protocols. They combined transfer learning (TL) with MFC data merging to increase the robustness of AI. The base dataset consists of around 18,000 training samples acquired using a 9-color MFC panel at Munich Leukemia Laboratory (MLL, Munich, Germany), between 2017 and 2018. Four additional MFC target datasets were obtained with different MFC panel compositions. All samples were analyzed on Navios flow cytometers (Beckman Coulter, Miami, FL, USA).

Flow cytometry is a method in which the blood cells flow past measurement sensors at high speed. The properties of the cells can be detected depending on their shape, structure or coloring. Detection and accurate characterization of pathological cells is important when making a diagnosis. The laboratories use "antibodies" that dock to the surface of the cells and are coupled to fluorescent dyes. Such markers can also be used to detect small differences between cancer cells and healthy blood cells. Flow cytometry generates large amounts of data. On average, more than 50,000 cells are measured per sample. These data are then typically analyzed on screen by plotting the expression of the markers used against each other.

The great new feature of the AI presented in the study lies in the possibility of knowledge transfer. Particularly smaller laboratories that cannot afford their own bioinformatics expertise and may also have too few samples to develop their own AI from scratch can benefit from this study. After a short training phase, during which the AI learns the specifics of the new laboratory, it can then draw on knowledge derived from many thousands of data sets.

Peter M. Krawitz, MD, PhD, a Professor at the Institute for Genomic Statistics and Bioinformatics and a senior author of the study, said, “The gold standard is diagnosis by hematologists, which can also take into account results of additional tests. The point of using AI is not to replace physicians, but to make the best use of the information contained in the data.”

The authors concluded their workflow extended deep learning models to multiple MFC panels and achieve high accuracy for multi-label classification across datasets. They addressed some of the previous challenges for automated flow cytometry classification by allowing models to be trained with smaller training sizes and generalizing models to work with multiple MFC panels. The workflow is a step toward making deep learning models robust so that AI for diagnostic MFC can move from the “proof of concept” stage into routine diagnostics. The study was published on September 17, 2021 in the journal Patterns.

Related Links:
University of Bonn
Munich Leukemia Laboratory
Beckman Coulter



Gold Member
Flocked Fiber Swabs
Puritan® Patented HydraFlock®
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Troponin I Test
Quidel Triage Troponin I Test
New
Auto Clinical Chemistry Analyzer
cobas c 703
Read the full article by registering today, it's FREE! It's Free!
Register now for FREE to LabMedica.com and get access to news and events that shape the world of Clinical Laboratory Medicine.
  • Free digital version edition of LabMedica International sent by email on regular basis
  • Free print version of LabMedica International magazine (available only outside USA and Canada).
  • Free and unlimited access to back issues of LabMedica International in digital format
  • Free LabMedica International Newsletter sent every week containing the latest news
  • Free breaking news sent via email
  • Free access to Events Calendar
  • Free access to LinkXpress new product services
  • REGISTRATION IS FREE AND EASY!
Click here to Register








Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.