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Tracking Red Blood Cells in Microchannels: A Comparative Study Between an Automatic and a Manual Method

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Topics in Medical Image Processing and Computational Vision

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computational Vision and Biomechanics ((LNCVB,volume 8))

Abstract

Image analysis is extremely important to obtain crucial information about the blood phenomena in microcirculation. The current study proposes an automatic method for segmentation and tracking red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through a 100 μm glass capillary. The original images were obtained by means of a confocal system and then processed in MatLab using the Image Processing Toolbox. The automatic measurements with the proposed automatic method are compared with a manual tracking method performed by ImageJ. The comparison of the two methods is performed using a statistical Bland–Altman analysis. The numerical results have shown a good agreement between the two methods. Additionally, no significant difference was found between the two methods and as a result the proposed automatic method is demonstrated to be a rapid and accurate way to track RBCs in microchannels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by: Student Mobility Placements with the program Lifelong Learning (Erasmus Program), PTDC/SAU-BEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008, PTDC/EME-MFE/099109/2008 and PTDC/SAU-ENB/116929/2010 from FCT (Science and Technology Foundation), COMPETE, QREN and European Union (FEDER).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESTiG, IPB, C. Sta. Apolonia, Braganca, 5301-857, Portugal

    D. Pinho, R. Lima & A. I. Pereira

  2. FEUP, R. Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal

    D. Pinho

  3. CEFT, FEUP, R. Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal

    R. Lima

  4. ALGORITMI, Campus de Azurém, Minho University, Guimarães, 4800-058, Portugal

    A. I. Pereira

  5. Fundación CARTIF, División de Robótica y Visión Artificial, Parque Tecnológico de Boecillo, Parc 205, BOECILLO, Valladolid, 47151, Spain

    F. Gayubo

Authors
  1. D. Pinho
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  2. R. Lima
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  3. A. I. Pereira
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  4. F. Gayubo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Lima .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Engenharia, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade do Porto, Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal

    João Manuel R.S. Tavares

  2. Faculdade de Engenharia, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal

    Renato M. Natal Jorge

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Pinho, D., Lima, R., Pereira, A.I., Gayubo, F. (2013). Tracking Red Blood Cells in Microchannels: A Comparative Study Between an Automatic and a Manual Method. In: Tavares, J., Natal Jorge, R. (eds) Topics in Medical Image Processing and Computational Vision. Lecture Notes in Computational Vision and Biomechanics, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0726-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0726-9_9

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0725-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0726-9

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