Comparing region of interest selection and whole-field analysis for measurement of ciliary beat frequency in high-speed video analysis.

Background: Ciliary beat frequency (CBF) is crucial in mucociliary clearance. High-speed video analysis (HSVA) is commonly used to measure CBF but lacks standardization. We compared visual observation and computer-assisted calculation using fast Fourier transformation (FFT) in freshly collected bronchial ciliary epithelial cells and cultured cells.
Methods: Bronchial epithelial cells were obtained from 12 patients who required bronchoscopic examination. Eighty-five videos of ciliary movement of freshly collected and cultured cells were recorded and used to calculate CBF using manual observation, region of interest (ROI) selection, and whole-field analysis.
Results: CBF measured by the ROI selection method strongly correlated with that measured using manual observation, especially in freshly collected cells. However, 27.8% of the manual observation method values were doubled in the ROI selection method, probably because a round trip of cilia was calculated as two cycles and needed to be corrected to 1/2 value. Upon increasing the number of ROIs, the results of the ROI selection method came closer to that of WFA.
Conclusions: Computer-assisted calculation using FFT can aid in measuring CBF; however, current methods require visual confirmation. Further automated evaluation techniques are needed to establish more standardized and generalized CBF measurement methods using HSVA.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Japanese Respiratory Society. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)