Abstract (EN):
In Africa, the propagation of parasites like the lymphatic filariasis is complicating
seriously the efforts of health professionals to cure certain diseases. Although there are
medicines capable to treat the lymphatic filariasis, this needs to be discovered firstly which is
not always an easy task having into account that in most countries affected by this disease it can
only be detected at night (nocturne). The lymphatic filariasis is then, a parasitical infection
which can originate changes or ruptures in the lymphatic system as well as an abnormal growth
of 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 threatened
by this disease which requires a preventive treatment to stop its propagation which makes it
even more important for the existence of a mechanism that is less costly and more agile in the
analysis of a blood smear to verify the existence of microfilariae (little worms that are produced
by other adult worms while housed in the lymphatic system).
The lymphatic filariasis is caused by an infection with nematodes (“roundworms”) of the
Filariodidea 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 the
disease. All three have characteristics that can differentiate them which allow them to be
identified.
The current identification process of the disease consists on the analysis of microfilariae in
a 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 processing
techniques for the recognition and counting of the two principal types of filarial worms from a
thin blood smear, a smartphone and a portable microscope making the detection possible
without the need of a health professional and consequent automation of the process. To make
this possible an adapter smartphone-microscope can be used to obtain an image with the
magnification of 40x3. The images can then be analyzed in a server or in the smartphone, if it
has enough processing for it. It is expected from this process that the need to resort to labs to
process the blood smear gets fulfilled making the process more accessible and agile instead of
costly 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 from
the acquisition system. However, the principal operations should be those that allow the
verification of existence or nonexistence, recognition and classification of the pretended
parasites. Processing and analysis techniques that are common in these processes are based in
the extraction of features (e.g. SIRF, SURF, and FLANN) template similarity, edge detection
and description of contours and recognition of statistical patterns.
Once detected and recognized one or more parasites and its types should be defined and
used a rule to declare the presence of the disease and its stage.
Language:
English
No. of pages:
102