A novel semi-automatic image processing approach to determine Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia in Giemsa-stained thin blood smears.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Malaria parasitemia is commonly used as a measurement of the amount of parasites in the patient's blood and a crucial indicator for the degree of infection. Manual evaluation of Giemsa-stained thin blood smears under the microscope is onerous, time consuming and subject to human error. Although automatic assessments can overcome some of these problems the available methods are currently limited by their inability to evaluate cases that deviate from a chosen "standard" model.

Results

In this study reliable parasitemia counts were achieved even for sub-standard smear and image quality. The outcome was assessed through comparisons with manual evaluations of more than 200 sample smears and related to the complexity of cell overlaps. On average an estimation error of l

SUBMITTER: Le MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2330144 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature