Optical identification of plasmodium alciparum malarial byproduct for parasite density estimation

Abstract

Plasmodium alciparum (P. alciparum) malarial degree of infection, termed as parasite density (PD), estimation is ital for point of-care diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In this work, we present application of optical techniques: optical absorption and multispectral imaging for P. alciparum malarial byproduct (hemozoin) detection in human-infected blood samples to estimate PD. *e blood samples were collected from olunteers who were tested positive for P. alciparum infections (i-blood), and after treatment, another set of blood samples (u-blood) were also taken. *e i-blood samples were grouped based on PD (+, ++, +++,and ++++). Optical densities (ODs) of u-blood samples and i-blood samples at blood absorption bands of 405 nm, 541 nm, and 577 nm showed different optical absorption characteristics. Empirical computation of ratio of the ODs for the blood absorption bands revealed reduction in the ODs with increasing PD. Multispectral images containing uninfected red blood cells (u-RBCs) and P. alciparum-infected red blood cells (i-RBCs) on unstained blood smear slides exhibited spectrally determined decrease in both reflected and scattered pixel intensities and increase in transmitted pixel intensities with increasing PD. We further propose a linear classification model based on Fisher’s approach using reflected, scattered, and transmitted pixel intensities for easy and inexpensive estimation of PD as an alternative to manual estimation of PD, currently, the widely used technique. Application of the optical techniques and the proposed linear classification model are therefore recommended for improved malaria diagnosis and therapy