Toward laboratory blood test-comparable photometric assessments for anemia in veterinary hematology

Abstract

Abstract. Anemia associated with intestinal parasites and malnutrition is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in small ruminants worldwide. Qualitative scoring of conjunctival redness has been developed so that farmers can gauge anemia in sheep and goats to identify animals that require treatment. For clinically relevant anemia diagnosis, complete blood count-comparable quantitative methods often rely on complicated and expensive optical instruments, requiring detailed spectral information of hemoglobin. We report experimental and numerical results for simple, yet reliable, noninvasive hemoglobin detection that can be correlated with laboratory-based blood hemoglobin testing for anemia diagnosis. In our pilot animal study using calves, we exploit the third eyelid (i.e., palpebral conjunctiva) as an effective sensing site. To further test spectrometerfree (or spectrometerless) hemoglobin assessments, we implement full spectral reconstruction from RGB data and partial least square regression. The unique combination of RGB-based spectral reconstruction and partial least square regression could potentially offer uncomplicated instrumentation and avoid the use of a spectrometer, which is vital for realizing a compact and inexpensive hematology device for quantitative anemia detection in the farm field.

Data-driven imaging of tissue inflammation using RGB-based hyperspectral reconstruction toward personal monitoring of dermatologic health

“…We previously developed a hyperspectral image reconstruction method that can reliably predict detailed hyperspectral information from RGB data obtained from a conventional 3-color (RGB) CCD camera [27,28]. In particular, we successfully tested this method using plants, in which the main pigment is chlorophyll [28], and redness in the eyelid of animals for anemia detection [27]. In this study, we extended this method to an animal model of skin carcinogenesis in which Hgb is the major pigment in the tissue and is an intermediate optical biomarker of inflammatory hyperemia.…”

“…Fortunately, mathematical reconstruction of hyperspectral (with relatively high spectral resolution) or multispectral (with several spectral measurements) imaging from RGB image data acquired using a conventional 3-color (RGB) camera is currently an active area of research. Since the reconstruction of multispectral images from RGB images was originally developed in basic color sciences [22], this approach has recently received considerable attention in biomedical applications [23][24][25][26][27][28]. There are several methods available for reconstructing full reflectance spectra from RGB data, including pseudo-inverse, regression, Wiener estimation, and demultiplexing [23][24][25]29,30].…”

Noninvasive Hemoglobin Level Prediction in a Mobile Phone Environment: State of the Art Review and Recommendations

“…The recommended optimal data collection sites on the body are the palpebral conjunctiva, because of easy access to the microvasculature, and the fingertip, because of the ease of control and access. In the eyelid area, most data collection processes involve digital photography [77,84,126] or reflectance spectroscopy [127,128]. Although most studies demonstrate how to capture an image accurately, perform spectral measurement, and maintain the data collection site motionless during data collection, there is a chance that some of the measurements may include noise from other unintentional activities such as eye blinking, eye sensitivity to the light, breathing, loss of control of the eyelid, or a limited exposed eye area.…”

Influence of environmental factors on the detection of blood in sheep faeces using visible-near infrared spectroscopy as a measure of Haemonchus contortus infection

“…In addition, production losses can still occur before scores indicative of the need for anthelmintic treatment are obtained, resulting in economic losses for sheep producers [27,29,30]. Recently an automated method which uses scanning of the third eyelid (palpebral conjunctiva) of the animal and image analysis to predict Hb levels has been validated in calves and could potentially improve the accuracy of prediction by reducing the operator variability associated with the FAMACHA © method [28]. However, whether this method is applicable to diagnosis of helminth infections in sheep or could provide earlier prediction of the need to treat is yet to be determined.…”