A Review on Classification of White Blood Cells Using Machine Learning Models

The machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models contribute to exceptional medical image analysis improvement. The models enhance the prediction and improve the accuracy by prediction and classification. It helps the hematologist to diagnose the blood cancer and brain tumor based on calculations and facts. This review focuses on an in-depth analysis of modern techniques applied in the domain of medical image analysis of white blood cell classification. For this review, the methodologies are discussed that have used blood smear images, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-rays, and similar medical imaging domains. The main impact of this review is to present a detailed analysis of machine learning techniques applied for the classification of white blood cells (WBCs). This analysis provides valuable insight, such as the most widely used techniques and best-performing white blood cell classification methods. It was found that in recent decades researchers have been using ML and DL for white blood cell classification, but there are still some challenges. 1) Availability of the dataset is the main challenge, and it could be resolved using data augmentation techniques. 2) Medical training of researchers is recommended to help them understand the structure of white blood cells and select appropriate classification models. 3) Advanced DL networks such as Generative Adversarial Networks, R-CNN, Fast R-CNN, and faster R-CNN can also be used in future techniques.Comment: 23 page

Automated Low-Cost Malaria Detection System in Thin Blood Slide Images Using Mobile Phones

Malaria, a deadly disease which according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) is responsible for the fatal illness in 200 million people around the world in 2010, is diagnosed using peripheral blood examination. The work undertaken in this research programme aims to develop an automated malaria parasite-detection system, using microscopic-image processing, that can be incorporated onto mobile phones. In this research study, the main objective is to achieve the performance equal to or better than the manual microscopy, which is the gold standard in malaria diagnosis, in order to produce a reliable automated diagnostic platform without expert intervention, for the effective treatment and eradication of the deadly disease. The work contributed to the field of mathematical morphology by proposing a novel method called the Annular Ring Ratio transform for blood component identification. It has also proposed an automated White Blood Cell and Red Blood Cell differentiation algorithm, which when combined with ARR transform method, has wide applications not only for malaria diagnosis but also for many blood related analysis involving microscopic examination. The research has undertaken investigations on infected cell identification which aids in the calculation of parasitemia, the measure of infection. In addition, an automated diagnostic tool to detect the sexual stage (gametocytes) of the species P.falciparum for post-treatment malaria diagnosis was developed. Furthermore, a parallel investigation was carried out on automated malaria diagnosis on fluorescent thin blood films and a WBC and infected cell differentiation algorithm was proposed. Finally, a mobile phone application based on the morphological image processing algorithms proposed in this thesis was developed. A complete malaria diagnostic unit using the mobile phones attached to a portable microscope was set up which has enormous potential not only for malaria diagnosis but also for the blood parasitological field where advancement in medical diagnostics using cellular smart phone technology is widely acknowledged

Quantitative-Morphological and Cytological Analyses in Leukemia

Leukemia, a blood cancer originating in the bone marrow, presents as a heterogeneous disease with highly variable survival rates. Leukemia is classified into major types based on the rate of cancerous cell growth and cell lineage: chronic or acute and myeloid or lymphoid leukemia. Histological and cytological analysis of the peripheral blood and the bone marrow can classify these major leukemia categories. However, histological analyses of patient biopsies and cytological microscopic assessment of blood and bone marrow smears are insufficient to diagnose leukemia subtypes and to direct therapy. Hence, more expensive and time-consuming diagnostic tools routinely complement histological-cytological analysis during a patient’s diagnosis. To extract more accurate and detailed information from patient tissue samples, digital pathology is emerging as a powerful tool to enhance biopsy- and smear-based decisions. Furthermore, digital pathology methods integrated with advances in machine learning enable new diagnostic features from leukemia patients’ histological and cytological slides and optimize patient classification, thus providing a cheaper, more robust, and faster diagnostic tool than current standards. This review summarizes emerging approaches to automatically diagnose leukemia from morphological and cytological-histological analyses

Review on Photomicrography based Full Blood Count (FBC) Testing and Recent Advancements

With advancements in related sub-fields, research on photomicrography in life science is emerging and this is a review on its application towards human full blood count testing which is a primary test in medical practices. For a prolonged period of time, analysis of blood samples is the basis for bio medical observations of living creatures. Cell size, shape, constituents, count, ratios are few of the features identified using DIP based analysis and these features provide an overview of the state of human body which is important in identifying present medical conditions and indicating possible future complications. In addition, functionality of the immune system is observed using results of blood tests. In FBC tests, identification of different blood cell types and counting the number of cells of each type is required to obtain results. Literature discuss various techniques and methods and this article presents an insightful review on human blood cell morphology, photomicrography, digital image processing of photomicrographs, feature extraction and classification, and recent advances. Integration of emerging technologies such as microfluidics, micro-electromechanical systems, and artificial intelligence based image processing algorithms and classifiers with cell sensing have enabled exploration of novel research directions in blood testing applications.

Red blood cell segmentation and classification method using MATLAB

Red blood cells (RBCs) are the most important kind of blood cell. Its diagnosis is very important process for early detection of related disease such as malaria and anemia before suitable follow up treatment can be proceed. Some of the human disease can be showed by counting the number of red blood cells. Red blood cell count gives the vital information that help diagnosis many of the patient’s sickness. Conventional method under blood smears RBC diagnosis is applying light microscope conducted by pathologist. This method is time-consuming and laborious. In this project an automated RBC counting is proposed to speed up the time consumption and to reduce the potential of the wrongly identified RBC. Initially the RBC goes for image pre-processing which involved global thresholding. Then it continues with RBCs counting by using two different algorithms which are the watershed segmentation based on distance transform, and the second one is the artificial neural network (ANN) classification with fitting application depend on regression method. Before applying ANN classification there are step needed to get feature extraction data that are the data extraction using moment invariant. There are still weaknesses and constraints due to the image itself such as color similarity, weak edge boundary, overlapping condition, and image quality. Thus, more study must be done to handle those matters to produce strong analysis approach for medical diagnosis purpose. This project build a better solution and help to improve the current methods so that it can be more capable, robust, and effective whenever any sample of blood cell is analyzed. At the end of this project it conducted comparison between 20 images of blood samples taken from the medical electronic laboratory in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The proposed method has been tested on blood cell images and the effectiveness and reliability of each of the counting method has been demonstrated

Lymphatic Filariasis detection in microscopic images

In Africa, the propagation of parasites like the lymphatic filariasis is complicatingseriously the efforts of health professionals to cure certain diseases. Although there aremedicines capable to treat the lymphatic filariasis, this needs to be discovered firstly which isnot always an easy task having into account that in most countries affected by this disease it canonly be detected at night (nocturne). The lymphatic filariasis is then, a parasitical infectionwhich can originate changes or ruptures in the lymphatic system as well as an abnormal growthof certain areas of the body causing pain, incapacity and social stigma.Approximately 1.23 billion people in 58 countries from all over the world are threatenedby this disease which requires a preventive treatment to stop its propagation which makes iteven more important for the existence of a mechanism that is less costly and more agile in theanalysis of a blood smear to verify the existence of microfilariae (little worms that are producedby other adult worms while housed in the lymphatic system).The lymphatic filariasis is caused by an infection with nematodes ("roundworms") of theFilariodidea family in which three types are inserted: Wuchereria Bancroft, responsible for 90%of all cases; Brugia Malayi, responsible for almost every remaining; B.Timori also causing thedisease. All three have characteristics that can differentiate them which allow them to beidentified.The current identification process of the disease consists on the analysis of microfilariae ina blood smear with a blood sample through a microscope and its identification by the observer.Taking this into account, it is intended to develop image analysis and processingtechniques for the recognition and counting of the two principal types of filarial worms from athin blood smear, a smartphone and a portable microscope making the detection possiblewithout the need of a health professional and consequent automation of the process. To makethis possible an adapter smartphone-microscope can be used to obtain an image with themagnification of 40x3. The images can then be analyzed in a server or in the smartphone, if ithas enough processing for it. It is expected from this process that the need to resort to labs toprocess the blood smear gets fulfilled making the process more accessible and agile instead ofcostly and slow.For the detection of the parasites from the acquired images it is intended to implement,experiment and choose the more adequate operations. These comprise pre-processing operationswith the goal to enhance the acquired images and eliminate possible artifacts prevenient fromthe acquisition system. However, the principal operations should be those that allow theverification of existence or nonexistence, recognition and classification of the pretendedparasites. Processing and analysis techniques that are common in these processes are based inthe extraction of features (e.g. SIRF, SURF, and FLANN) template similarity, edge detectionand description of contours and recognition of statistical patterns.Once detected and recognized one or more parasites and its types should be defined andused a rule to declare the presence of the disease and its stage