Pathfinder: multiresolution region-based searching of pathology images using IRM.

The fast growth of digitized pathology slides has created great challenges in research on image database retrieval. The prevalent retrieval technique involves human-supplied text annotations to describe slide contents. These pathology images typically have very high resolution, making it difficult to search based on image content. In this paper, we present Pathfinder, an efficient multiresolution region-based searching system for high-resolution pathology image libraries. The system uses wavelets and the IRM (Integrated Region Matching) distance. Experiments with a database of 70,000 pathology image fragments have demonstrated high retrieval accuracy and high speed. The algorithm can be combined with our previously developed wavelet-based progressive pathology image transmission and browsing algorithm and is expandable for medical image databases.