| Popis: |
Sickle cell anemia is a blood disorder which is widespread across world with an estimate that about 30% of total population will be affected by the end of 2050. Especially in India, the frequency of sickle cell trait can reach up to 35%, thereby increasing attention over the topic for research. It is necessary to detect the disorder as much as it is for finding a cure to it. Therefore, a system that detect the sickle cells from the blood smear images or erythrocytes images is required. The affected cells change their shape from circular to sickle shape, due to the presence of typical hemoglobin called hemoglobin S. Nowadays, the elongated affected cells are identified using image processing techniques. The shape descriptors which are the vital features used to identify any shapes in an image. The contrast and brightness of blood smear images may not be consistent as the acquisition of these images depends on various factors like luminance and chrominance. To detect the sickle cells properly in the blood smear images, the histogram equalization technique is applied to improve the contrast of the image. The image is converted to binary in order to find the boundary of the cells in the image. In the binary image, each normal cell will have holes, Since the normal red blood cell have the shape of a doughnut that has been pressed in the middle slightly. The boundary of all the cells in the image is traced and the holes inside each cells are filled. Each cell is considered as a connected component for which the eccentricity is calculated. The eccentricity is the shape descriptor which is the ratio of the major axis and minor axis of the connected components. If the eccentricity is greater than threshold, the cells are identified as sickle cells. |
