Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging and Unsupervised Hierarchical Clustering Applied to Cervical Biopsies
FTIR images of cervical tissue from patient biopsies were processed with an unsupervised hierarchical clustering algorithm and compared with hematoxylin- and eosin-stained adjacent sections. Anatomical and potential histopathological features were clearly resolved in the resultant cluster maps. The mean extracted spectra assigned to each cluster indicate that the major spectral differences between the different cells in tissue predictably occur in the amide I region (1700–1570 cm−1) and the phosphodiester/glycogen region (1200–1000 cm−1). FTIR imaging in which a focal plane array mercury–cadmium–telluride detector and unsupervised hierarchical clustering is used shows potential as a rapid, non-subjective diagnostic tool in cervical pathology.