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ABSTRACT: Background
Manual microscopy remains a widely-used tool for malaria diagnosis and clinical studies, but it has inconsistent quality in the field due to variability in training and field practices. Automated diagnostic systems based on machine learning hold promise to improve quality and reproducibility of field microscopy. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designed a 55-slide set (WHO 55) for their External Competence Assessment of Malaria Microscopists (ECAMM) programme, which can also serve as a valuable benchmark for automated systems. The performance of a fully-automated malaria diagnostic system, EasyScan GO, on a WHO 55 slide set was evaluated.Methods
The WHO 55 slide set is designed to evaluate microscopist competence in three areas of malaria diagnosis using Giemsa-stained blood films, focused on crucial field needs: malaria parasite detection, malaria parasite species identification (ID), and malaria parasite quantitation. The EasyScan GO is a fully-automated system that combines scanning of Giemsa-stained blood films with assessment algorithms to deliver malaria diagnoses. This system was tested on a WHO 55 slide set.Results
The EasyScan GO achieved 94.3?% detection accuracy, 82.9?% species ID accuracy, and 50?% quantitation accuracy, corresponding to WHO microscopy competence Levels 1, 2, and 1, respectively. This is, to our knowledge, the best performance of a fully-automated system on a WHO 55 set.Conclusions
EasyScan GO's expert ratings in detection and quantitation on the WHO 55 slide set point towards its potential value in drug efficacy use-cases, as well as in some case management situations with less stringent species ID needs. Improved runtime may enable use in general case management settings.
SUBMITTER: Horning MP
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7905596 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Horning Matthew P MP Delahunt Charles B CB Bachman Christine M CM Luchavez Jennifer J Luna Christian C Hu Liming L Jaiswal Mayoore S MS Thompson Clay M CM Kulhare Sourabh S Janko Samantha S Wilson Benjamin K BK Ostbye Travis T Mehanian Martha M Gebrehiwot Roman R Yun Grace G Bell David D Proux Stephane S Carter Jane Y JY Oyibo Wellington W Gamboa Dionicia D Dhorda Mehul M Vongpromek Ranitha R Chiodini Peter L PL Ogutu Bernhards B Long Earl G EG Tun Kyaw K Burkot Thomas R TR Lilley Ken K Mehanian Courosh C
Malaria journal 20210225 1
<h4>Background</h4>Manual microscopy remains a widely-used tool for malaria diagnosis and clinical studies, but it has inconsistent quality in the field due to variability in training and field practices. Automated diagnostic systems based on machine learning hold promise to improve quality and reproducibility of field microscopy. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designed a 55-slide set (WHO 55) for their External Competence Assessment of Malaria Microscopists (ECAMM) programme, which can ...[more]