{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T06:34:28Z","timestamp":1791441268891,"version":"4.3.3"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0010500","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,6]],"date-time":"2022-07-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1657065600000}}],"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,17]],"date-time":"2022-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1655424000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosntds.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Negl Trop Dis"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\"><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>With the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) publication of the 2021\u20132030 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) roadmap, the current gap in global diagnostics became painfully apparent. Improving existing diagnostic standards with state-of-the-art technology and artificial intelligence has the potential to close this gap.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec002\"><jats:title>Methodology\/Principal findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>We prototyped an artificial intelligence-based digital pathology (AI-DP) device to explore automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in stool prepared with the Kato-Katz (KK) technique, the current diagnostic standard for diagnosing soil-transmitted helminths (STHs;<jats:italic>Ascaris lumbricoides<\/jats:italic>,<jats:italic>Trichuris trichiura<\/jats:italic>and hookworms) and<jats:italic>Schistosoma mansoni<\/jats:italic>(SCH) infections. First, we embedded a prototype whole slide imaging scanner into field studies in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. With the scanner, over 300 KK stool thick smears were scanned, resulting in total of 7,780 field-of-view (FOV) images containing 16,990 annotated helminth eggs (<jats:italic>Ascaris<\/jats:italic>: 8,600;<jats:italic>Trichuris<\/jats:italic>: 4,083; hookworms: 3,623; SCH: 684). Around 90% of the annotated eggs were used to train a deep learning-based object detection model. From an unseen test set of 752 FOV images containing 1,671 manually verified STH and SCH eggs (the remaining 10% of annotated eggs), our trained object detection model extracted and classified helminth eggs from co-infected FOV images in KK stool thick smears, achieving a weighted average precision (\u00b1 standard deviation) of 94.9% \u00b1 0.8% and a weighted average recall of 96.1% \u00b1 2.1% across all four helminth egg species.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec003\"><jats:title>Conclusions\/Significance<\/jats:title><jats:p>We present a proof-of-concept for an AI-DP device for automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in KK stool thick smears. We identified obstacles that need to be addressed before the diagnostic performance can be evaluated against the target product profiles for both STH and SCH. Given that these obstacles are primarily associated with the required hardware and scanning methodology, opposed to the feasibility of AI-based results, we are hopeful that this research can support the 2030 NTDs road map and eventually other poverty-related diseases for which microscopy is the diagnostic standard.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0010500","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,17]],"date-time":"2022-06-17T17:39:40Z","timestamp":1655487580000},"page":"e0010500","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":75,"title":["Affordable artificial intelligence-based digital pathology for neglected tropical diseases: A proof-of-concept for the detection of soil-transmitted helminths and Schistosoma mansoni eggs in Kato-Katz stool thick smears"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Peter","family":"Ward","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Dahlberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ole","family":"Lagatie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joel","family":"Larsson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"August","family":"Tynong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Johnny","family":"Vlaminck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthias","family":"Zumpe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shaali","family":"Ame","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mio","family":"Ayana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Virak","family":"Khieu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zeleke","family":"Mekonnen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maurice","family":"Odiere","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tsegaye","family":"Yohannes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sofie","family":"Van Hoecke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bruno","family":"Levecke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7818-9390","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Lieven J.","family":"Stuyver","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref001","first-page":"55","volume-title":"Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals\u2013A road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021\u20132030","author":"WHO","year":"2020"},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0003895","article-title":"Eliminating the Neglected Tropical Diseases: Translational Science and New Technologies","volume":"10","author":"PJ Hotez","year":"2016","journal-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis"},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e0009422","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0009422","article-title":"The role of diagnostic technologies to measure progress toward WHO 2030 targets for soil-transmitted helminth control programs","volume":"15","author":"LJ Stuyver","year":"2021","journal-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis."},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1093\/trstmh\/traa118","article-title":"Diagnostics and the neglected tropical diseases roadmap: Setting the agenda for 2030","volume":"115","author":"AA Souza","year":"2021","journal-title":"Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg"},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref005","author":"WHO","year":"2019","journal-title":"Report of the first meeting of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland, 30\u201331 October 2019"},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref006","first-page":"1","author":"WHO","year":"2021","journal-title":"Diagnostic test for surveillance of lymphatic filariasis TARGET PRODUCT PROFILE"},{"key":"pntd.0010500.ref007","author":"WHO","year":"2021","journal-title":"Onchocerciasis: diagnostic target product profile to support preventive chemotherapy. 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