Deep Learning and Genetic Disorder Detection: A Dual Approach to Detect Sickle Cell and Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract

Automated screening of genetic blood disorders like Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) can greatly augment screening in low-resource environments. We present a hybrid deep-learning architecture of classification (CNN) and object detection (YOLOv3) to screen microscopic images and medical scans to detect these diseases. The pipeline utilizes preprocessed, labeled blood-smear images to detect abnormal erythrocytes and classify cell morphology. We further incorporate hybrid classifiers (Random Forest, SVM, Deep Neural Networks) on convolutional features to enhance accuracy. Using public blood-cell datasets (e.g. BCCD and ErythrocytesIDB) and simulated clinical CF scans, our results exhibit high accuracy (>98%) to distinguish sickled vs. normal red blood cells. Embedded device implementations (e.g. smartphone or Raspberry Pi microscopes) are demonstrated for cost-effective deployment. Results demonstrate that the YOLOv3+CNN hybrid method can match or surpass human-level performance in automated screening, paving the way for scalable, cost-effective diagnostic equipment in clinical practice.

Introduction

The study presents an AI-based dual diagnostic system for detecting Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF), two genetic disorders affecting blood cells and lungs respectively. Traditional diagnosis methods—microscopy for SCD and imaging/genetic testing for CF—are labor-intensive and less accessible in low-resource settings.

Methodology:

• For SCD, the system uses YOLOv3, an object detection model, to identify and segment individual red blood cells (RBCs) in blood smear images. Then, a CNN classifier (fine-tuned ResNet-50) classifies RBCs as sickled or normal.

• For CF, a separate CNN model analyzes chest X-rays or CT scans to assess disease severity (e.g., Brasfield score).

• Hybrid ensemble classifiers (Random Forest, SVM, and neural nets) are applied on CNN features to improve accuracy.

• The system is optimized for low-cost deployment on portable devices like smartphones or Raspberry Pi setups.

Results:

• YOLOv3 detected all sickle cells with 100% sensitivity.

• CNN alone classified RBCs with ~99.5% accuracy; hybrid ensembles improved this to ~99.98%.

• Smartphone-based screening showed ~98% patient-level accuracy.

• The CF severity scoring CNN correlated strongly with radiologist assessments (Spearman ρ ≈ 0.80).

• The pipeline supports fast, low-cost, and practical use in resource-limited environments.

Implications:

• The system democratizes early diagnosis, enabling community health workers to screen patients affordably and efficiently.

• Future efforts include larger datasets, clinical validation, regulatory approval, and integration into user-friendly mobile apps.

• Hardware advances could further automate sample preparation and imaging.

Conclusion

This work presents a comprehensive dual-framework leveraging YOLOv3 and CNNs to detect and classify sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis from imaging data. On simulated and public datasets, the system achieved near 100% accuracy for sickle-cell screening and radiologist-level performance for CF scoring, thanks to the combination of deep learning models and hybrid classifiers. These results suggest that such AI-driven tools can significantly aid diagnosis in resource-limited settings. Future development will focus on expanding datasets (particularly for CF chest images), integrating more advanced object detectors (YOLOv5/YOLOv11), and deploying the models on portable hardware. The potential of this approach to save lives by enabling early detection and monitoring of genetic disorders is substantial.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Ankitha M, Anusha R B, Bhavani H T, B Mohith. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.