Intraepidermal Nerve Fiber Density Quantification

In collaboration with the Institute for Neuropathology at the University of Münster, we are developing a standardized method for quantifying the degree of innervation of a patient’s skin, supporting the research of exposure to gadolinium-based contrast-agents by Prof. Jeibmann.

It has been shown that symptoms of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis have a direct causal relationship with exposure to contrast mediums accompanying MRT screenings. Furthermore, a recent study¹ investigated skin biopsies of rodents injected with contrast media and identified visible, pathological changes inside the epidermis accompanied by axonal swellings and a reduced degree of nerve fiber innervation. As quantifying the epidermis innervation manually is time consuming, we now aim to automate the process. We do this by utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms on microscopy images of skin biopsies, segmenting the individual layers, identifying nerve fibers and quantifying a density measure. In later stages our findings are expected to be translatable to human skin, providing a tool for automated quantification, aiding further research in the field of gadolinium-poisoning.

Potentially the results of our work could form a new standard-procedure in clinical practice by supplying a tool to analyze damaged intraepidermal nerve fiber, supporting diagnosis for patients with similar symptoms.