GPGPU-based data parallel region growing algorithm for cell nuclei detection

Nowadays microscopic analysis of tissue samples is done more and more by using digital imagery and special immunodiagnostic software. These are typically specific applications developed for one distinct field, but some subroutines are commonly repeated, for example several applications contain steps that can detect cell nuclei in a sample image. The aim of our research is developing a new data parallel algorithm that can be implemented even in a GPGPU environment and that is capable of counting hematoxylin eosin (HE) stained cell nuclei and of identifying their exact locations and sizes (using a variation of the region growing method). Our presentation contains the detailed description of the algorithm, the peculiarity of the CUDA implementation, and the evaluation of the created application (regarding its accuracy and the decrease in the execution time).