AUTOMATION OF BLOOD SMEAR PROCEDURE

THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITYOF UTILIZING COLOR COMPUTER VISION AND NEURAL NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES TO AUTOMATE THE WHITE CELL DIFFERENTIAL CURRENTLY PERFORMED BY MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS. AUTOMATION OF THE MICROSCOPIC BLOOD DIFFERENTIAL PROCEDURE IS NEEDED TOIMPROVE THE ACCURACY AND CONSISTENCY OF THIS IMPORTANT PROCEDURE IN THE DETECTION OF LEUKEMIA, INFECTION, AND OTHERDISORDERS AND TO MONITOR THE EFFECTS OF CANCER CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION TREATMENT. THE RELATIVELY HIGH ERROR RATES EXPERIENCED BY MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS IN PERFORMING THIS PROCEDURE IS ASSOCIATED WITH (1) THE TEDIUM OF EXTENDED VIEWING THROUGH A MICROSCOPE, (2) THE DIFFICULTY OF IDENTIFYING OFTEN SUBTLE DIFFERENCES IN CELL CHARACTERISTICS, AND (3) HUMAN DEFICIENCIES (MOOD, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, TRAINING). A GROWING SHORTAGE OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS, WHICH RESULTS IN DELAYED TEST RESULTS AND ESCALATING LABOR COSTS, IS ANOTHER REASON FOR AUTOMATION OF THE BLOOD ANALYSIS PROCEDURE. PHASE II WILL INVOLVE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WITHTHE CAPABILITY TO PERFORM THE ENTIRE MICROSCOPIC BLOOD SMEARANALYSIS PROCEDURE (WBC DIFFERENTIAL, RBC MORPHOLOGY, PLATELET ESTIMATION) FOR UNDER $100,000.