Effective use of image processing techniques for the detection of sickle cell anemia and presence of Plasmodium parasites

Various blood related diseases have been increasing over the years due to various internal and external factors affecting more than a million people causing long term illness and mortality. Two such diseases are anemia and malarial fever. Anemia is a condition which is determined by low count of red blood cells or abnormally shaped red blood cells. Anemia causes weariness, paleness and tiredness. There are several types of anemia like thalassaemia, fanconi anemia, haemolytic anaemia etc among which sickle cell anemia is the most common one. Sickle cells refer to abnormal crescent shaped red blood cells present in the blood, which may cause severe pain and permanent damage to brain, lungs, kidney and spleen. Malaria is a most common infectious disease that is caused by parasites in the saliva of the mosquitoes in human and other animals, which eventually affect the red blood cells causing a sharp rise in body temperature. Common symptoms of malaria include dry cough, headache, muscle pain and fatigue. The proposed paper focuses on the detection of blood anemia and malarial fever by examining the blood stain and detecting abnormal red blood cells such as sickle cells and presence of plasmodium parasites on the blood cells through an computer-based automated system which uses image processing techniques like Otsu segmentation for binary conversion and feature extraction using morphological operations than the most commonly followed traditional laboratory method where the pathologists are needed to examine the blood requiring more time and cost for diagnosis. The result are found to be 89% accurate which more efficient than existing methods.