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Development of an Automated System to Detect Spermatozoa on Laboratory Slides to Increase Productivity in the Analysis of Sexual Assault Cases

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Development of an Automated System to Detect Spermatozoa on Laboratory Slides to Increase Productivity in the Analysis of Sexual Assault Cases The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Development of an Automated System to Detect Spermatozoa on Laboratory Slides to Increase Productivity in the Analysis of Sexual Assault Cases Author: Wendy P. Alger, B.S., Trisha Conti, Ph.D. and Eric Buel, Ph.D. Document No.: 236473 Date Received: November 2011 Award Number: 2004-DN-BX-K003 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Development of an automated system to detect spermatozoa on laboratory slides to increase productivity in the analysis of sexual assault cases Award Number: 2004-DN-BX-K003 Wendy P. Alger, BS, Trisha Conti, PhD and Eric Buel, PhD ABSTRACT The analysis of a sexual assault case by the forensic laboratory is a multi-step procedure. One step in this process is often a lengthy microscopic examination of slides produced from samples collected from the victim’s body, such as vaginal smears, and also from other crime scene evidence to determine the presence or absence of spermatozoa. This manual search for sperm can take considerable time depending upon the nature of the slide. Since the identification of sperm and the number available is a good indicator of the potential success of a subsequent STR analysis, there is a need to develop a procedure that allows swift analysis of these slides. The “faster, more robust, and less labor-intensive identification of sperm in the analysis of DNA evidence” can assist the forensic scientist in determining the appropriate use of resources and of crime scene samples. A method for quick and accurate screening of slides for sperm could decrease the turnaround time for sexual assault cases, more accurately determine which cases would be suitable for autosomal versus Y STR analysis, and re-direct staff to assist in other aspects of the biological analysis of the case. Such processing and analysis could give the analyst valuable information to assess samples, saving time and money that could be directed to other analyses. 1 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The proposed project intended to explore the possibility of using existing hardware and modifying software to develop an automated sperm searching system. The system would allow the analyst to load multiple slides into the device for unattended analysis. Verification of the computer identified spermatozoa would be performed through the inspection of captured images or through a computer-driven directed review of the slide. The proposed system would consist of a microscope, a computer-driven stage that would accept multiple slides, a video system to import images into a computer, and software to drive the stage and to interpret images. This study, at first, involved only one vendor; however, it soon included a second vendor with the hopes that two systems, used in comparison, would speed the process of developing one working system. The initial objective was to use the commonly used stain, referred to as Christmas Tree stain, that requires the microscope to use the normal bright field light system. This grant was expanded to include the use of fluorescence staining, such as DAPI or FITC, so each automated microscope was required to have the ability to switch to a fluorescent lighting and detection system. 2 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM PAGE(S) ABSTRACT 1-2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4-8 MAIN BODY 9-52 Introduction 9-14 Statement of the Problem 9-10 o Literature Citations and Review 10-14 o Rationale for the Research 14 • Methods 15-17 • Results 18-50 o Statement of Results 18-38 o Tables 41 o Figures 42-52 • Conclusions 53-56 o Discussion of Findings 53-54 o Implications for Policy and Practice 54-56 o Implications for Further Research 56 • References 57 • Dissemination of Research Findings 58-59 3 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An automated system to examine microscopic slides for spermatozoa would be an improvement over manual examinations for many reasons, including but not limited to, more efficient use of forensic analyst time, faster examination time per slide, faster turn-around time for a criminal case examination, and reduction in repetitive and ergonomic injuries to the employee. For these reasons, the development of an automated system was proposed for this grant. The casework slides were made from crime scene evidence collected by police or by sexual assault nurse examiners. Most often the slides submitted for examination for spermatozoa have been made from swabs used to collect evidence from the body orifices such as vaginal, oral and rectal areas. The initial approach of the project was to use a bright field microscope produced by one company. The project soon expanded to compare two bright field microscopes produced by two different companies to determine which system worked better. A comparison of two systems was intended to increase the speed of the development of one working system. Also tested was the possibility of using fluorescent dyes or fluorescently tagged antibodies specific to human sperm cells for view with a fluorescent microscope. The goal of the fluorescence aspect was to provide a fast screen of potential sperm cells under fluorescence and with the ability to then switch to bright field in order to truly identify the sperm (i.e. a double stain approach). Both automated microscopy systems purchased included a microscope, a stage that held multiple slides, a computer system to process the images, and a screen to view the gallery of images collected. The systems were capable of scanning using bright field or fluorescence. 4 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The automated bright field microscopes identify the spermatozoa by using a camera to capture the images of each object seen on the slide. The computer processes these images and judges by the size, shape, and color whether the object is a sperm cell or not. The slides are stained with a stain referred to as the Christmas Tree stain since it colors the sperm red and green (Oppitz, 1969). This stain, commonly used in the forensic community, is inexpensive and easy to use. The microscope developed by MetaSystems (Waltham, MA; Figure 1) was efficient from the day of its installation. It reliably found sperm cells including a single cell on a slide. It rarely missed identifying a sperm cell, which is extremely important since a sample routinely does not go forward for DNA testing unless a biological stain is identified. However, the slow speed of scanning the slide, often two hours per slide, was a significant problem since most sexual assault cases typically include three slides. Six hours to determine a result was far too long to wait during a normal work day. The other automated microscopic system, developed by Loats Associates, Inc. (Westminster, MD; Figure 2), required more fine-tuning. This microscope and computer system had trouble focusing on the slides and, therefore, had trouble identifying sperm cells. The scans took far less time to run, often finishing in twenty minutes. However, the rapid run times for the Loats system did not produce quality results, as sperm were often not identified and focusing remained an issue. Both systems lacked the discriminatory power to distinguish sperm cells from debris or other cell types and reported numerous false positives. The automated systems have software that allows the user to set the number of potential “sperm” object images collected for examiner review and verification. These selected images of presumed sperm are placed into a gallery. The gallery images are “snapshots” of the identified objects displayed as a “thumbnail” image in real-time as the microscope scans the slide. The 5 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S.
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