Automatic disease screening method using image processing for dried blood microfluidic drop stain pattern recognition

Abstract

This paper examines programmed automatic recognition of infection from samples of dried stains of micro-scale drops of patient blood. This technique has the upside of being low-cost and less-intrusive and not requiring puncturing the patient with a needle for drawing blood, which is especially critical for infants and the matured. It also does not require expensive pathological blood test laboratory equipment. The method is shown in this work to be successful for ailment identification in patients suffering from tuberculosis and anaemia. Illness affects the physical properties of blood, which thus influence the samples of dried micro-scale blood drop stains. For instance, if a patient has a severe drop in platelet count, which is often the case of dengue or malaria patients, the blood’s physical property of viscosity drops substantially, i.e. the blood is thinner. Thus, the blood micro-scale drop stain samples can be utilised for diagnosing maladies. This paper presents programmed automatic examination of the dried micro-scale drop blood stain designs utilising an algorithm based on pattern recognition. The samples of micro-scale blood drop stains of ordinary non-infected people are clearly recognisable as well as the samples of micro-scale blood drop stains of sick people, due to key distinguishing features. As a contextual analysis, the micro-scale blood drop stains of patients infected with tuberculosis have been contrasted with the micro-scale blood drop stains of typical normal healthy people. The paper dives into the fundamental flow mechanics behind how the samples of the dried micro-scale blood drop stain is shaped. What has been found is a thick ring like feature in the dried micro-scale blood drop stains of non-ailing people and thin shape like lines in the dried micro-scale blood drop stains of patients with anaemia or tuberculosis disease. The ring like feature at the periphery is caused by an outward stream conveying suspended particles to the edge. Concentric rings (brought on by internal Marangoni flow) and deposition in the centre of the stain are patterns that were found in the dried micro-scale drop blood stain samples of ordinary healthy people.

Keywords:

• Pattern recognition
• tuberculosis
• dried blood microdrop stain pattern
• microfluidic device
• physical properties of blood

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to recognise the contributions of Dr Vandana Garg, Physician of Internal Medicine, Max Hospital, Noida, U.P. and Professor Dr Sarman Singh, Head of the Clinical Microbiology Department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, New Delhi), and Dr Lal PathLabs, Noida, U.P. for giving information, data, and knowledge on tuberculosis.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.