title: Analysis of white blood cell dynamics in nailfold capillaries.
abstract: Based on video data acquired with low-cost, portable microscopy equipment, we introduce a semi-automatic method to count visual gaps in the blood flow as a proxy for white blood cells (WBC) passing through nailfold capillaries. Following minimal user interaction and a pre-processing stage, our method consists in the spatio-temporal segmentation and analysis of capillary profiles. Besides the mere count information, it also estimates the speed associated with every WBC event. The accuracy of our algorithm is validated through the analysis of two capillaries acquired from one healthy subject. Results are compared with manual counts from four human raters and confronted with related physiological data reported in literature.
authors.forename: Aurelien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bourquard
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Butterworth
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Ferro
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giancardo
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Soenksen
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cerrato
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Castro-Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002196:Capillaries / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D009262:Nails / Q000098:blood supply*; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D013997:Time Factors