3-Dimensional Reconstruction from Histopathological Sections: A Systematic Review

While pathological tissue analysis is typically performed on single 2-dimensional (2D) histological reference slides, 3-dimensional (3D) reconstruction from a sequence of histological sections could provide novel opportunities for spatial analysis of the extracted tissue. In this review, we analyze recent works published after 2018 and report information on the extracted tissue types, the section thickness and the number of sections used for reconstruction. By analyzing the technological requirements for 3D reconstruction, we observe that software tools exist, both free and commercial, that include the functionality to perform 3D reconstruction from a sequence of histological images. Through the analysis of the most recent works, we provide an overview of the workflows and tools that are currently used for 3D reconstruction from histological sections and address points for future work, such as a missing common file format or computer-aided analysis of the reconstructed model.