MarrowQuant 2.0: A Digital Pathology Workflow Assisting Bone Marrow Evaluation in Experimental and Clinical Hematology

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Rita Sarkis - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), University of Lausanne (Author)
  • Olivier Burri - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (Author)
  • Claire Royer-Chardon - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Frédérica Schyrr - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (Author)
  • Sophie Blum - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (Author)
  • Mariangela Costanza - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Stephane Cherix - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Nathalie Piazzon - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Carmen Barcena - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (Author)
  • Bettina Bisig - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Valentina Nardi - , Boston Children's Hospital (Author)
  • Rossella Sarro - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC) (Author)
  • Giovanna Ambrosini - , Bioinformatics Competence Center (BICC), UNIL/EPFL (Author)
  • Martin Weigert - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (Author)
  • Olivier Spertini - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Sabine Blum - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Bart Deplancke - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) (Author)
  • Arne Seitz - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (Author)
  • Laurence de Leval - , University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (Author)
  • Olaia Naveiras - , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), University of Lausanne (Author)

Abstract

Bone marrow (BM) cellularity assessment is a crucial step in the evaluation of BM trephine biopsies for hematologic and nonhematologic disorders. Clinical assessment is based on a semiquantitative visual estimation of the hematopoietic and adipocytic components by hematopathologists, which does not provide quantitative information on other stromal compartments. In this study, we developed and validated MarrowQuant 2.0, an efficient, user-friendly digital hematopathology workflow integrated within QuPath software, which serves as BM quantifier for 5 mutually exclusive compartments (bone, hematopoietic, adipocytic, and interstitial/microvasculature areas and other) and derives the cellularity of human BM trephine biopsies. Instance segmentation of individual adipocytes is realized through the adaptation of the machine-learning-based algorithm StarDist. We calculated BM compartments and adipocyte size distributions of hematoxylin and eosin images obtained from 250 bone specimens, from control subjects and patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome, at diagnosis and follow-up, and measured the agreement of cellularity estimates by MarrowQuant 2.0 against visual scores from 4 hematopathologists. The algorithm was capable of robust BM compartment segmentation with an average mask accuracy of 86%, maximal for bone (99%), hematopoietic (92%), and adipocyte (98%) areas. MarrowQuant 2.0 cellularity score and hematopathologist estimations were highly correlated (R2 = 0.92-0.98, intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.98; interobserver ICC = 0.96). BM compartment segmentation quantitatively confirmed the reciprocity of the hematopoietic and adipocytic compartments. MarrowQuant 2.0 performance was additionally tested for cellularity assessment of specimens prospectively collected from clinical routine diagnosis. After special consideration for the choice of the cellularity equation in specimens with expanded stroma, performance was similar in this setting (R2 = 0.86, n = 42). Thus, we conclude that these validation experiments establish MarrowQuant 2.0 as a reliable tool for BM cellularity assessment. We expect this workflow will serve as a clinical research tool to explore novel biomarkers related to BM stromal components and may contribute to further validation of future digitalized diagnostic hematopathology workstreams.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number100088
JournalModern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc
Volume36
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85153550786
ORCID /0000-0002-7780-9057/work/176863461

Keywords

Keywords

  • Bone Marrow Cells/pathology, Bone Marrow Examination, Bone Marrow/pathology, Hematology, Humans, Workflow