Computational analysis of peripheral blood smears detects disease-associated cytomorphologies

José Guilherme Almeida, Emma Gudgin, Martin Besser, William G. Dunn, Jonathan Cooper, Torsten Haferlach, George S. Vassiliou () and Moritz Gerstung ()
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José Guilherme Almeida: European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)
Emma Gudgin: University of Cambridge
Martin Besser: University of Cambridge
William G. Dunn: University of Cambridge
Jonathan Cooper: Wellcome Genome Campus
Torsten Haferlach: Munich Leukemia Laboratory GmbH
George S. Vassiliou: Wellcome Genome Campus
Moritz Gerstung: European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Many hematological diseases are characterized by altered abundance and morphology of blood cells and their progenitors. Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), for example, are a group of blood cancers characterised by cytopenias, dysplasia of hematopoietic cells and blast expansion. Examination of peripheral blood slides (PBS) in MDS often reveals changes such as abnormal granulocyte lobulation or granularity and altered red blood cell (RBC) morphology; however, some of these features are shared with conditions such as haematinic deficiency anemias. Definitive diagnosis of MDS requires expert cytomorphology analysis of bone marrow smears and complementary information such as blood counts, karyotype and molecular genetics testing. Here, we present Haemorasis, a computational method that detects and characterizes white blood cells (WBC) and RBC in PBS. Applied to over 300 individuals with different conditions (SF3B1-mutant and SF3B1-wildtype MDS, megaloblastic anemia, and iron deficiency anemia), Haemorasis detected over half a million WBC and millions of RBC and characterized their morphology. These large sets of cell morphologies can be used in diagnosis and disease subtyping, while identifying novel associations between computational morphotypes and disease. We find that hypolobulated neutrophils and large RBC are characteristic of SF3B1-mutant MDS. Additionally, while prevalent in both iron deficiency and megaloblastic anemia, hyperlobulated neutrophils are larger in the latter. By integrating cytomorphological features using machine learning, Haemorasis was able to distinguish SF3B1-mutant MDS from other MDS using cytomorphology and blood counts alone, with high predictive performance. We validate our findings externally, showing that they generalize to other centers and scanners. Collectively, our work reveals the potential for the large-scale incorporation of automated cytomorphology into routine diagnostic workflows.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39676-y

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