Modern methods of image analysis and processing are one of the cornerstones of research for biophotonic diagnostics.

A special issue of Journal of Biophotonics is devoted to the topic of image analysis and processing in biomedical diagnosis. The area of medical image analysis and processing represents a very broad concept and every photonic technique requires adapted image analysis routines. Rapid progress in methods for the analysis of medical images requires continuous knowledge updates.

This overview of new trends in analysis and processing is intended to broaden the knowledge of practitioners (engineers and doctors) on the use of modern analysis and image processing methods in medical diagnostics. The issue starts with image analysis methods for ophthalmological tasks, where the photonic devices are already clinically applied. In particular, there are articles on the application of computational methods for the analysis of the biomechanics of the cornea in response to an air puff and for the analysis of images acquired from optical scanners. Another emerging area in the broad field of image analysis is the analysis of hyperspectral images. This analysis type is covered in the second part of the special issue. There are articles on the analysis of prostate tissue in OCT images, the hybrid method of differentiation-free strain estimation, methods of thermal image analysis and the use of IR spectral histology or biomedical Raman Spectroscopic imaging.

See the original publication: Special Issue “Image Processing in Biomedical Diagnosis“, edited by Robert Koprowski, Thomas Bocklitz, J. Biophotonics 9:5, 427–559 (2016).