Patent ID: 8666676
Filing Date: 2014-03-04
Classification: G01N,G06K

Abstract:
1. A system for analysing contractions or Ca 2+ transients in an in vitro sample of functionally-coupled cells, comprising: a matrix for supporting said cells; an imager for imaging said cells; a reagent for emitting at least one detectable signal representative of said contractions or Ca2+ transients; memory means for storing a data trace of said image for a least one region of interest (ROI) making up a measured field of view of said cells, wherein the data trace represents variations in said contractions or Ca2+ transients versus time; a non-transitory computer program product residing on at least one computing device including at least a processor, memory, and available storage, configured for investigating the data trace for the, or each, ROI to identify one or more first sections of the data trace comprising peaks in the trace which correspond to peaks in the contractions or Ca2+ transients; further wherein the computer program product is configured for selecting and analyzing ROIs including at least one transient peak as included ROIs; and further wherein the computer program product is configured also for selecting and analysing one or more second sections of the data trace which do not comprise contractions or Ca2+ transient peaks to generate a first set of parameters representing a signal variability (SV) of inter-transient noise (ITN) between the included ROIs, and analysing said one or more first data trace sections and said one or more second data trace sections to provide a more complete analysis of the variations in said contractions or Ca2+ transients versus time.