YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites

Early detection of Trypanosoma parasites is critical for the prompt treatment of trypanosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that poses severe health and socioeconomic challenges in affected regions. To address the limitations of traditional manual microscopy and prior automated methods, we propos...

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Main Authors: Davide Antonio Mura, Luca Zedda, Andrea Loddo, Cecilia Di Ruberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Journal of Imaging
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/4/117
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author Davide Antonio Mura
Luca Zedda
Andrea Loddo
Cecilia Di Ruberto
author_facet Davide Antonio Mura
Luca Zedda
Andrea Loddo
Cecilia Di Ruberto
author_sort Davide Antonio Mura
collection DOAJ
description Early detection of Trypanosoma parasites is critical for the prompt treatment of trypanosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that poses severe health and socioeconomic challenges in affected regions. To address the limitations of traditional manual microscopy and prior automated methods, we propose YOLO-Tryppa, a novel YOLO-based framework specifically engineered for the rapid and accurate detection of small Trypanosoma parasites in microscopy images. YOLO-Tryppa incorporates ghost convolutions to reduce computational complexity while maintaining robust feature extraction and introduces a dedicated P2 prediction head to improve the localization of small objects. By eliminating the redundant P5 prediction head, the proposed approach achieves a significantly lower parameter count and reduced GFLOPs. Experimental results on the public Tryp dataset demonstrate that YOLO-Tryppa outperforms the previous state of the art by achieving an AP50 of 71.3%, thereby setting a new benchmark for both accuracy and efficiency. These improvements make YOLO-Tryppa particularly well-suited for deployment in resource-constrained settings, facilitating more rapid and reliable diagnostic practices.
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spelling doaj-art-103fd6cbb2a144ce9ef3db74edf38e7e2025-08-20T03:13:47ZengMDPI AGJournal of Imaging2313-433X2025-04-0111411710.3390/jimaging11040117YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma ParasitesDavide Antonio Mura0Luca Zedda1Andrea Loddo2Cecilia Di Ruberto3Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, ItalyDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, ItalyDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, ItalyDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, ItalyEarly detection of Trypanosoma parasites is critical for the prompt treatment of trypanosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that poses severe health and socioeconomic challenges in affected regions. To address the limitations of traditional manual microscopy and prior automated methods, we propose YOLO-Tryppa, a novel YOLO-based framework specifically engineered for the rapid and accurate detection of small Trypanosoma parasites in microscopy images. YOLO-Tryppa incorporates ghost convolutions to reduce computational complexity while maintaining robust feature extraction and introduces a dedicated P2 prediction head to improve the localization of small objects. By eliminating the redundant P5 prediction head, the proposed approach achieves a significantly lower parameter count and reduced GFLOPs. Experimental results on the public Tryp dataset demonstrate that YOLO-Tryppa outperforms the previous state of the art by achieving an AP50 of 71.3%, thereby setting a new benchmark for both accuracy and efficiency. These improvements make YOLO-Tryppa particularly well-suited for deployment in resource-constrained settings, facilitating more rapid and reliable diagnostic practices.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/4/117computer visiondeep learningimage processingTrypanosoma detectionYOLO-based architectureslightweight detection models
spellingShingle Davide Antonio Mura
Luca Zedda
Andrea Loddo
Cecilia Di Ruberto
YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
Journal of Imaging
computer vision
deep learning
image processing
Trypanosoma detection
YOLO-based architectures
lightweight detection models
title YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
title_full YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
title_fullStr YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
title_full_unstemmed YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
title_short YOLO-Tryppa: A Novel YOLO-Based Approach for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Small Trypanosoma Parasites
title_sort yolo tryppa a novel yolo based approach for rapid and accurate detection of small trypanosoma parasites
topic computer vision
deep learning
image processing
Trypanosoma detection
YOLO-based architectures
lightweight detection models
url https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/4/117
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