Follow-up of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis by Three-Dimensional Reconstruction Based on Photogrammetry: Proof of Concept

Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease transmitted by a vector prevalent in tropical rural areas affecting people with low economic resources. Treatments for this disease have significant adverse effects and a different therapeutic response in patients; therefore, accurate follow-up is necessary. Although there has been an increased interest in generating other options for treatment efficiency, the follow-up does not have standardized quantitative methods that allow an accurate estimation of the area and volume of the ulcer in the different phases of the disease. In this work, the proof of concept of a methodology based on photogrammetry was carried out to perform the quantitative follow-up of the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis ulcers in hamsters. For this, several stages were implemented, from the acquisition of videos by an in-house artificial vision system, to the measurement of ulcers using a commercial image processing software.