A Best-Effort Fibrin Strand Detection Algorithm

Blood coagulation plays an important part in a healthy haematological system. As part of the coagulation process, fibrin networks are formed from the circulating plasma proteins, called fibrinogen, forming a blood clot. During inflammation, the healthy clotting process is changed, and is translated to hypercoagulation, which is a hallmark of all inflammatory conditions. Hypercoagulation impacts directly on the structure on the fibrin fibre networks, as circulating inflammatory molecules bind and change fibrinogen molecules. There is currently no method, other than a manual process to analyse fibrin networks to study the ultrastructural patterns of healthy versus pathological clotting profiles. This precise process is time consuming and automation is required for faster and accurate results. This paper proposes a best-effort fibrin detection and measurement method to detect fibrin strands in digital microscopy images and to measure their diameters. A prototype has been developed using the described method, having the ability to identify and accurately measure fibrin strands. The fibrin strand diameters measured by the fibrin strand detection algorithm are consistent with results documented in literature indicating that the measurements are performed correctly and accurately.