Title

A Rapid Method for Counting Nucleated Erythrocytes on Stained Blood Smears by Digital Image Analysis

Authors

Eben Gering, Smithsonian InstitutionFollow
Carter T. Atkinson, United States Geological Survey

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2004

Publication Title

Journal of Parasitology

ISSN

0022-3395

Volume

90

Issue/No.

4

First Page

879

Last Page

881

Abstract

Measures of parasitemia by intraerythrocytic hematozoan parasites are normally expressed as the number of infected erythrocytes per n erythrocytes and are notoriously tedious and time consuming to measure. We describe a protocol for generating rapid counts of nucleated erythrocytes from digital micrographs of thin blood smears that can be used to estimate intensity of hematozoan infections in nonmammalian vertebrate hosts. This method takes advantage of the bold contrast and relatively uniform size and morphology of erythrocyte nuclei on Giemsa-stained blood smears and uses ImageJ, a java-based image analysis program developed at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and available on the internet, to recognize and count these nuclei. This technique makes feasible rapid and accurate counts of total erythrocytes in large numbers of microscope fields, which can be used in the calculation of peripheral parasitemias in low-intensity infections.

Comments

©American Society of Parasitologists 2004

Additional Comments

NIH Research grant #: T37 TW 00096

NSUWorks Citation

Gering, Eben and Carter T. Atkinson. 2004. "A Rapid Method for Counting Nucleated Erythrocytes on Stained Blood Smears by Digital Image Analysis." Journal of Parasitology 90, (4): 879-881. doi:10.1645/GE-222R.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-1270-6727

DOI

10.1645/GE-222R