Fig. 1

Representative images showing quantification of collagen fiber alignment in second harmonic generation (SHG) images of myocardial tissue sections using CurveAlign. The upper panels show representative images from well-aligned collagen fibers in the myocardium. The tissue fibers were quantified by CurveAlign on a scale of 0–1 where 1 is perfect alignment and lower numbers indicate less alignment. A Image with an alignment of 0.98, indicating near-perfect alignment. B The Fiber Alignment Map shows the individual fiber alignments which are captured in aggregate and visualized in the Angle Histogram (C). The very concentrated nature of the angle distribution indicates strong agreement with the high alignment quantified by CurveAlign. The lower panels show representative images from poorly aligned collagen fibers in the myocardium. D Image with an alignment of 0.48, indicating poor alignment. E The Fiber Alignment Map shows the individual fiber alignments which are captured in aggregate and visualized in the Angle Histogram. F The wide variety of angles seen in the Angle Histogram agrees with the lower score assigned by CurveAlign. G Collagen fiber alignment for the Hematological Malignancy (HM) group is compared to the Solid Tumor (ST) group, showing significantly lower alignment in the HM group as indicated by the 0.027 p-value. The Fiber Alignment Map and Angle Histogram were created as output images by CurveAlign [13]. The Inputs (Panels A & D) were slightly brightened for visualization purposes. Magnification 20X