A Hybrid Framework for Red Blood Cell Labeling Using Elliptical Fitting, Autoencoding, and Data Augmentation

This study aimed to develop a local dataset of abnormal RBC morphology from confirmed cases of anemia and thalassemia in Thailand, providing a foundation for medical image analysis and future AI-assisted diagnostics. Blood smear samples from six hematological disorders were collected between April and May 2025, with twelve regions of interest segmented into approximately 34,000 single-cell images. To characterize cell variability, a convolutional autoencoder was applied to extract latent features, while ellipse fitting was used to quantify cell geometry. Expert hematologists validated representative clusters to ensure clinical accuracy, and data augmentation was employed to address class imbalance and expand rare morphological types. From the dataset, 14,089 high-quality single-cell images were used to classify RBC morphology into 36 clinically meaningful categories. Unlike existing datasets that rely on limited or curated samples, this dataset reflects population-specific characteristics and morphological diversity relevant to Southeast Asia. The results demonstrate the feasibility of establishing scalable and interpretable datasets that integrate computational methods with expert knowledge. The proposed dataset serves as a robust resource for advancing hematology research and contributes to bridging traditional diagnostics with AI-driven clinical support systems.