Image Analysis Using Machine Learning for Automated Detection of Hemoglobin H Inclusions in Blood Smears - A Method for Morphologic Detection of Rare Cells.

Background: Morphologic rare cell detection is a laborious, operator-dependent process which has the potential to be improved by the use of image analysis using artificial intelligence. Detection of rare hemoglobin H (HbH) inclusions in red cells in the peripheral blood is a common screening method for alpha-thalassemia. This study aims to develop a convolutional neural network-based algorithm for the detection of HbH inclusions.