Analysis of haemoglobin variants using quantitative image techniques

Abstract

Digital image processing is a rapidly evolving field with growing applications in engineering. One such area of great importance is in medical imaging. This dissertation proposes the use of digital image processing in the analysis of haemoglobin variants present within a blood sample. These variants are obtained in the form of images having a number of distinct bands which contain the haemoglobin variants. These images therefore lend themselves well to a deep study in the use of typical image processing techniques such as image acquisition, image enhancement, segmentation and edge detection. The latter techniques are quite interesting especially since this dissertation proposes a fully automatic system without the need of extra information entered by the user. Intensity calibration curves are used in conjunction with a calibration control strip, to create a system which would be independent of the original scanning parameters, which would otherwise alter the results expected.