Abstract
The quantitative description of cell structures in light microscope
images is an important task in biological research. The inclusion of
digital image processing techniques and fluorescent markers into light
microscope imag ing has recently made this task feasible. In this
paper, we present a method for detection of filamentary structures in
cell images that have been high lighted with fluorescent markers. The
method has three stages. First, pixels belonging to fiber contours are
extracted from the image. Then these pixels are grouped together based
on proximity by a minimal spanning tree. Finally, the fiber contours
are determined as sub-trees of the minimal span ning tree. Once the
pixels belonging to individual fibers contours have been determined,
quantitative statistics describing the fibers in the cell can be
calculated.