{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,25]],"date-time":"2026-07-25T16:01:56Z","timestamp":1784995316314,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]],"date-time":"2025-12-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765756800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan","award":["113-2221-E-155-029-"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["113-2221-E-155-029-"]}]},{"name":"National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan","award":["114-2637-8-155-003-"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["114-2637-8-155-003-"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005866","name":"Far Eastern Memorial Hospital","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FEMH-2025-c-074"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FEMH-2025-c-074"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005866","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Demodex mites are a common yet underdiagnosed cause of ocular surface diseases, including blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Traditional diagnosis via microscopic examination is labor-intensive and time-consuming. This study aimed to develop a deep learning-based system for the automated detection and quantification of Demodex mites from microscopic eyelash images. Methods: We collected 1610 microscopic images of eyelashes from patients clinically suspected to have ocular demodicosis. After quality screening, 665 images with visible Demodex features were annotated and processed. Two deep learning models, YOLOv11 and RT-DETR, were trained and evaluated using standard metrics. Grad-CAM visualization was applied to confirm model attention and feature localization. Results: Both YOLO and RT-DETR models were able to detect Demodex mites in our microscopic images. The YOLOv11 boxing model revealed an average precision of 0.9441, sensitivity of 0.9478, and F1-score of 0.9459 in our detection system, while the RT-DETR model showed an average precision of 0.7513, sensitivity of 0.9389, and F1-score of 0.8322. Moreover, Grad-CAM visualization confirmed the models\u2019 focus on relevant mite features. Quantitative analysis enabled consistent mite counting across overlapping regions, with a confidence level of 0.4\u20130.8, confirming stable enumeration performance. Conclusions: The proposed artificial intelligence (AI)-based detection system demonstrates strong potential for assisting ophthalmologists in diagnosing ocular demodicosis efficiently and accurately, reducing reliance on manual microscopy and enabling faster clinical decision making.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics15243204","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]],"date-time":"2025-12-15T13:32:37Z","timestamp":1765805557000},"page":"3204","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Demodicosis Mite Detection in Eyes with Blepharitis and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction Based on Deep Learning Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Elsa Lin-Chin","family":"Mai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City 220, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Electric Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Optometry, Yuanpei University of Medical Technology, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ya-Ling","family":"Tseng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-6572-7089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hao-Ting","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wen-Hsuan","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City 220, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Han-Hao","family":"Tsai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City 220, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung City 404, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ting-Ying","family":"Chien","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"},{"name":"Graduate Program in Biomedical Informatics, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"},{"name":"Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"311","DOI":"10.1097\/ICL.0000000000001003","article-title":"Demodex blepharitis: A comprehensive review of the disease, current management, and emerging therapies","volume":"49","author":"Rhee","year":"2023","journal-title":"Eye Contact Lens"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"505","DOI":"10.1097\/ACI.0b013e32833df9f4","article-title":"Pathogenic role of Demodex mites in blepharitis","volume":"10","author":"Liu","year":"2010","journal-title":"Curr. 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