dotSlide microscope

The dotSlide system is based on the upright BX Olympus research microscopes, which enables a range of modules to be easily added to meet the desired specification. They offer all properties for use in digital virtual microscopy including the extraordinary optical performance and logical structure. Numerous motorised components and the unique modular, ergonomic design ensure maximum efficiency. Each motorised component can be directly controlled, monitored and automated via the software. The standard dotSlide microscope comes with the following:
BX51 microscope frame; objectives: 2x PLAPON, 10x, 20x, 40x UPLSAPO; illumination: brightfield with 100 W halogen lamphouse; optional: polarisation, fluorescence, 100 W lamphouse reflected; motorised revolving nosepiece: BX-REMCB

dotSlide camera

The Peltier cooled, 1376 x 1032 pixel dotSlide camera offers exactly what users in diagnostics, research, development and quality assurance need: high resolution, fast frame rates and very high sensitivity with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio, broad dynamic range and superior image quality. As a result the camera offers images rich in detail and contrast with extraordinary low background noise.

Objectives

The objectives used with the dotSlide system are all from the advanced Olympus UIS2 range, offering excellent transmission across the entire spectrum. All objectives are plan-corrected, displaying high colour fidelity with optimised contrast to visualise stained specimen in front of a bright, natural background. They are available as either plan apochromats (UPlanSAPO) or plan fluorites (UPlanFL). The motorised nosepiece integrates fully with the system for fast, hands-free objective changes.

dotSlide motor stage/stage controller

A high-precision X, Y stage gives the system excellent accuracy and repeatability, and can handle standard as well as large slide formats.

dotSlide workstation

A top-specification PC-based workstation provides all the power required for complex control and processing of both microscope and analysis functions. The large, high-resolution monitor is driven by a dedicated graphic board and a multiformat DVD burner provides easy-to-use optical storage.

dotSlide in Pathology

 
With the increasing demand for networking in hospitals and collaborations comes the need for the correct tools. The new dotSlide concept from Olympus has introduced a unique high-speed, whole-slide scanning system, producing digital slide images at high-end microscope quality for pathology. Now, the user can work more flexibly and efficiently to evaluate slides, diagnose and consult colleagues for second opinions, at separate times and in different locations.

Virtual slide – real diagnosis

 
Taking an exact copy of an entire slide using the dotSlide system increases the flexibility of case analysis. This unique ability is due to the careful combination of precision optical components, high-quality scanning stage and camera with advanced application software.

The whole picture

The careful integration of all the components creates a highly flexible system that enables the user to acquire digital slides for diagnosis quickly and effortlessly. The acquisition process starts with generating an overview image of the entire slide. It includes the automatic detection of the specimen to avoid time-consuming scanning of areas where there is no sample on the slide. As a second step, the high-magnification scan is automatically performed, over the whole slide or over smaller, predefined areas of interest using the preselected objective. During the acquisition, thousands of individual images are simultaneously compressed without any loss in quality and stitched together to create a seamless, magnified version of the slide. As a result, this is carried out within minutes, even using high-magnification objectives.

Worldwide access

The virtual slide image is stored with all the relevant information in such a way that it enables instant, controlled, access from anywhere in the world. This makes it an excellent tool for remote diagnosis (telediagnostics), second-opinion consultations, group discussions and intra-operative diagnosis of frozen sections. The system provides each user with an easy-to-use on-screen control interface, allowing free navigation within the sample. Moreover, the users can control multiple virtual slides and/or other image file formats simultaneously for easy comparison. In this way, they can access virtual slides from wherever they are and therefore do not need to be in their office or even their home country to screen a slide.

Meeting room

More importantly, as well as giving individual access to the virtual slides, the system also enables collaboration around the globe via the access-controlled conferencing tool. This allows users to be assigned different roles such as moderator, speaker or client. Therefore, second opinions can be requested or difficult case discussions can happen immediately and in real time, with the added benefit of annotation, highlighting and minute taking – a truly revolutionary tool ensuring a new level of efficiency.

Automatic slide scanning

Many diagnostic, teaching and clinical trials laboratories are faced with a growing number of samples to process and it is therefore more efficient to scan slides in batches and review them later. The Olympus dotSlide system can be fitted with a slide loader, which holds up to 50 slides and is integrated with a bar code reader, giving full traceability and hands-off scanning. This ability also makes it quick and easy to archive slides, producing permanent records.

Storage and preservation

dotSlide in Research

Life science research has relied heavily on advances in microscopy to move our knowledge forward. The dotSlide system represents such a step forward, offering excellent throughput for extensive image analysis and superb documentation of tissue sections, cell cultures and even tissue microarrays.

Selection of participants and
images to be discussed for
online conferences

Increased efficiency

Microscopy has advanced rapidly over the last few years in terms of the microscope hardware and the techniques used to produce contrast or markers developed to identify molecules, organelles and cell types. Today, we have a much more accurate way of investigating cellular and bimolecular processes. Many experiments use multiple sections of a sample to show the distribution of a certain molecule. Analysing these can take up many hours of the researcher’s time and block the microscope for other users. By scanning the sections on the dotSlide system, the researcher can view their slide away from the microscope and even perform analysis using dedicated imaging software.

Online conferencing in real time, location-independent

 Global discussion

Due to the unique way the dotSlide images are stored and transmitted, a researcher can invite the rest of their group to view slides of interest, either individually or as a group, whether they are in the same building or situated around the world. The virtual facility offers controllable access for the user, such that with the correct permissions, they can add and edit files. The system is designed to only transmit the amount of data required to provide the desired view and is therefore very quick. The Conference tool window allows a moderator to set up a conference so that all invited clients can see and discuss what the speaker is showing, plus it also records every aspect of the conference, such as the participants’ names, notes and annotations.

Gallery view and multi-image
display*

Selection or exclusion of TMA
cores for scanning with
minimum effort*

Tissue microarrays

The ‘microarray’ concept is rapidly developing, giving both high throughput and high content for all molecular ‘-omes’ such as the genome, proteome and metabolome. Arrays are a very cost-efficient way of running highly statistically relevant investigations and, importantly, the array principle applies just as well to tissue samples, known as tissue microarrays (TMAs). TMAs consist of many small tissue cores with a defined diameter that are fixed on a single object carrier. With TMAs, researchers have a powerful way of preparing and staining thousands of different tissue samples under the same conditions and analysing them at once. This has made them an increasingly important and efficient tool for molecular biological research, pharmaceutical drug discovery, gene expression and therapeutic antibody research. The functionality of the dotSlide system can be expanded with a dedicated TMA module, facilitating acquisition and simple analysis of tissue microarrays. This module enables documentation of each core separately, accurately recording its slide and core reference for traceability.

Multifunction

The dotSlide system comprises a research-level microscope with a colour-perfect digital camera and advanced software, making it a platform with great flexibility, which allows the addition of a range of accessories, from new objectives to fluorescence illumination units.

Virtual microscopy for education

Teaching new students to analyse pathology samples is an important process. It is, though, beset with the difficult decision of how best to demonstrate the differences between normal samples and many different disease stages that exist for each type of tissue. Up until now, this choice has been restricted to either giving each student a different, but very similar slide, so that they can get the feel of working with a whole sample, or presenting a single image of one sample via projector or online tutorial. Both of these options have severe limitations for teaching in groups. With the introduction of the Olympus dotSlide system, though, this has now changed.

Guided by annotations and
‘views’, students can identify regions
of interest(ROIs) easily

Digital teaching in classrooms and remotely

From Olympus’ Net Image Server SQL (NIS SQL) database virtual digital slides can be easily accessed, viewed and annotated simply with an Internet browser or with the free OlyVIA image viewer. Each student can review the same sample and control the position and magnification individually as if it were a real slide. The tutor can also work with all the students in real time, showing them how best to analyse effectively, pick out rare cases, or test all students on the same slide.

Digital teaching in classrooms and remotely

From Olympus’ Net Image Server SQL (NIS SQL) database virtual digital slides can be easily accessed, viewed and annotated simply with an Internet browser or with the free OlyVIA image viewer. Each student can review the same sample and control the position and magnification individually as if it were a real slide. The tutor can also work with all the students in real time, showing them how best to analyse effectively, pick out rare cases, or test all students on the same slide.

Maximise teaching efficiency

Digital SlideBox (SlidePath) is a leading software package that allows academic tutors to build extensive libraries of slides and pathology cases for review by students using the web. Developed with key academic institutes, its design facilitates the creation and editing of educational content, quickly and easily, and is an ideal interactive resource for teaching in any discipline that uses glass slides. Thus, digital microscopy now offers students the opportunity to navigate around a histological section at a variety of magnifications, providing unlimited access to all teaching material outside of the laboratory at any time.

Multimedia e-learning environment

Digital SlideBox’s easy-to-use interface provides users everything needed to produce digital slide-based teaching material via the creation of online histology lab. Innovative features allow the addition of descriptions and questionnaires, as well as multimedia files, such as lecture notes, presentations and videos. Furthermore, the technology allows educators to link to external web resources to maximise existing online content, and provides seamless support for all leading scanner image files. Digital SlideBox also offers simple and powerful tools that provide unparalleled user and content management, which allows classes, courses and assessments to be organised quickly and easily.

Straightforward course assessment tools

Digital SlideBox offers a number of statistical tools and graphical output of assessment results. The Free Hand Annotation tool allows students to draw any shape to annotate irregular objects and Heat Map Tracking (HMT) provides a visual representation of activity on a digital slide by showing the locations on the slide where different magnifications were used. User Morphing is a means of allowing teachers to view student heat maps and any annotations that they have made. This means teachers can provide feedback and review student performances quickly and easily.