Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) malarial degree of infection, termed as parasite density (PD), estimation is vital for pointof-\ncare diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In this work, we present application of optical techniques: optical absorption and\nmultispectral imaging for P. falciparum malarial byproduct (hemozoin) detection in human-infected blood samples to estimate\nPD. The blood samples were collected from volunteers who were tested positive for P. falciparum infections (i-blood), and after\ntreatment, another set of blood samples (u-blood) were also taken. The i-blood samples were grouped based on PD (+, ++, +++,\nand ++++). Optical densities (ODs) of u-blood samples and i-blood samples at blood absorption bands of 405 nm, 541 nm, and\n577 nm showed different optical absorption characteristics. Empirical computation of ratio of the ODs for the blood absorption\nbands revealed reduction in the ODs with increasing PD. Multispectral images containing uninfected red blood cells (u-RBCs)\nand P. falciparum-infected red blood cells (i-RBCs) on unstained blood smear slides exhibited spectrally determined decrease in\nboth reflected and scattered pixel intensities and increase in transmitted pixel intensities with increasing PD. We further propose a\nlinear classification model based on Fisherâ??s approach using reflected, scattered, and transmitted pixel intensities for easy and\ninexpensive estimation of PD as an alternative to manual estimation of PD, currently, the widely used technique. Application of\nthe optical techniques and the proposed linear classification model are therefore recommended for improved malaria diagnosis\nand therapy.
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