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Fig. 2 | BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Fig. 2

From: Role of CD248 as a potential severity marker in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Fig. 2

Panel a: Graphical explanation of the digital image analysis using the Colour Deconvolution ImageJ plugin. The digital images taken of the IPF sections opened in ImageJ and DAB (brown) and Hematoxylin (blue) channels were digitally separated using the plugin. Then both resulting images were transformed to 8-bit greyscale images and after threshold levels were applied resulting 1 bit images. We compared Hematoxylin-stained and DAB-stained pixel numbers above the threshold on the 2 images so that we get a relative CD248 staining area. Panel b: Comparison of the relative areas stained positively for CD248 in IPF patient groups plotted on a dot plot diagram, horizontal lines representing the median value. On the diagram we plotted relative staining areas on sections obtained from IPF patients with mild-to-moderate fibrosis (n = 11, samples obtained by VATS biopsy) and lung transplant patients with severe or end-stage fibrotic changes (n = 11). In VATS biopsy patients with mild-to-moderate fibrotic changes significantly smaller area (median value = 0.45) stained positively for CD248 when compared to those with severe or end-stage lung fibrosis (median value = 1.19; p < 0.05 using Mann–Whitney U-test)

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