Tuberculosis (TB) control efforts are hampered by a mismatch in diagnostic technology. Lack of adequate early diagnostics and Multi-drug resistant (MDR) detection is a critical problem in control efforts. Alternate and novel diagnostic approaches are required, especially in low-resources settings where they are needed most. The Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS) assay is a cost-effective, highly sensitive, and specific method based on the detection of characteristic cording growth patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), in microscopic examination of a liquid culture under an inverted microscope. By adding antimicrobials to the wells, MODS also determines antimicrobial susceptibility in both MDR and Extreme Drug Resistant (XDR) tuberculosis. The interpretation of a MODS culture performed in a 24 well plate, requires an extensive inspection over the entire surface to ...

The present study proposes a method of automatic detection of tuberculosis (TB) bacilli from digital images of Ziehl Neelsen sputum smear baciloscopy. The method is based on an algorithm that aims to automate the interpretation of optical microscopic images of sputum smears. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialist can not analyze and process more than 20 samples per day (in order to not affect the analysis sensitivity and commit errors in diagnosis). Therefore, an automated tool as the proposed here, is an important contribution to the current efforts to fight tuberculosis. The algorithm is based on geometric eccentricity of ellipses and improvement of RGB component tones. Correspondence functions adjusted to sample preparation conditions were applied in order to improve the RGB primary component tones of the image. This allows to obtain an adequate segmentation of...

The initial development of the algorithm was funded by a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship awarded to DAJM [078067/Z/05] and by the Peruvian FINCYT Proyecto de Interes Nacional [PIN 061] and CONCYTEC PROCYT awarded to MZ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.