Automated tuberculosis diagnosis using fluorescence images from a mobile microscope.

In low-resource areas, the most common method of tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis is visual identification of rod-shaped TB bacilli in microscopic images of sputum smears. We present an algorithm for automated TB detection using images from digital microscopes such as CellScope, a novel, portable device capable of brightfield and fluorescence microscopy. Automated processing on such platforms could save lives by bringing healthcare to rural areas with limited access to laboratory-based diagnostics.