Robotic Microscopy of Amniotic Fluid Cells for the Fully-Automated Quantitation of FISH Signals
FISH is a valuable adjunct to Cytogenetics, providing a rapid screen for common abnormalities. However, FISH is expensive, labor intensive, and requires a high skill level and subjective signal interpretation. Ikonisys fastFISH™ is a fully robotic fluorescence microscopy platform requiring only that slide-containing cassettes are loaded into the instrument. The system has a capacity for loading 7 cassette each containing up to 26 slides. Each slide is scanned and returned to its cassette with no requirement for user input. Images of cells are digitally captured and automatically analyzed for the presence of specific FISH signals, that are enumerated and reported. Following scanning, the workstation provides a gallery for each slide, displaying the image of each cell and its FISH signals, so that the operator can confirm the diagnostic relevance of the data reported. Initially, we blindly compared Ikonisys fastFISH™ against manual FISH analysis for 62 amniocentesis samples probed for chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y. Two pairs of slides were produced from each sample, one pair evaluated using standard manual microscopy and the other using the Ikoniscope™ fastFISH™ Imaging System. 100% concordance was observed between the results obtained using manual microscopy and the automated system. Subsequently, the fastFISH™ system was further improved to produce fully automated FISH dot-counting. 10 samples were then analyzed using fastFISH™ Auto, that produces a test outcome based on fully automated FISH dot-count analysis. These also demonstrated 100% concordance with manual analysis. This suggests that the automated system is capable of providing accurate detection and quantitation of FISH signals and has potential where the reliability and speed offered by an automated system would be of benefit.