03433nas a2200361   4500000000100000008004100001260003700042653002400079653005700103100001100160700001500171700001400186700001400200700001300214700001500227700001200242700001000254700001200264700001200276700001500288700001300303700001500316700001700331700001400348700001500362700001100377245022400388856009900612300001300711490000700724520232600731022001403057       2022                            d  bPublic Library of Science (PLoS)10aInfectious Diseases10aPublic Health, Environmental and Occupational Health1 aWard P1 aDahlberg P1 aLagatie O1 aLarsson J1 aTynong A1 aVlaminck J1 aZumpe M1 aAme S1 aAyana M1 aKhieu V1 aMekonnen Z1 aOdiere M1 aYohannes T1 aVan Hoecke S1 aLevecke B1 aStuyver LJ1 aZhou X00aAffordable artificial intelligence-based digital pathology for neglected tropical diseases: A proof-of-concept for the detection of soil-transmitted helminths and Schistosoma mansoni eggs in Kato-Katz stool thick smears  uhttps://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0010500&type=printable  ae00105000 v163 a<p><strong>Background:</strong> With the World Health Organization’s (WHO) publication of the 2021–2030 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) roadmap, the current gap in global diagnostics became painfully apparent. Improving existing diagnostic standards with state-of-the-art technology and artificial intelligence has the potential to close this gap.</p>

<p><strong>Methodology/Principal findings:</strong> We prototyped an artificial intelligence-based digital pathology (AI-DP) device to explore automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in stool prepared with the Kato-Katz (KK) technique, the current diagnostic standard for diagnosing soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms) and Schistosoma mansoni (SCH) infections. First, we embedded a prototype whole slide imaging scanner into field studies in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. With the scanner, over 300 KK stool thick smears were scanned, resulting in total of 7,780 field-of-view (FOV) images containing 16,990 annotated helminth eggs (Ascaris: 8,600; Trichuris: 4,083; hookworms: 3,623; SCH: 684). Around 90% of the annotated eggs were used to train a deep learning-based object detection model. From an unseen test set of 752 FOV images containing 1,671 manually verified STH and SCH eggs (the remaining 10% of annotated eggs), our trained object detection model extracted and classified helminth eggs from co-infected FOV images in KK stool thick smears, achieving a weighted average precision (± standard deviation) of 94.9% ± 0.8% and a weighted average recall of 96.1% ± 2.1% across all four helminth egg species.</p>

<p><strong>Conclusions/Significance:</strong> We present a proof-of-concept for an AI-DP device for automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in KK stool thick smears. We identified obstacles that need to be addressed before the diagnostic performance can be evaluated against the target product profiles for both STH and SCH. Given that these obstacles are primarily associated with the required hardware and scanning methodology, opposed to the feasibility of AI-based results, we are hopeful that this research can support the 2030 NTDs road map and eventually other poverty-related diseases for which microscopy is the diagnostic standard.</p>
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