In new research from UCL and Royal Free Hospital, a smartphone camera detected changes in skin tone and eye colour. Both of which require patients to seek medical help.
The study was published in PLOS Digital Health. Furthermore, it is the first study to assess and compare how forehead images from a smartphone can accurately predict the bilirubin level of advanced cirrhosis patients through the white of the eye and lower eyelid. Moreover, it was revealed that images of the white eye were best for detecting bilirubin levels from an image.
This approach has potential. It can closely monitor liver cirrhosis patients at home
The approach has the potential to monitor liver cirrhosis patients at home more closely, easily, and cost-effectively than they are currently. The authors expect that this will detect the worsening of symptoms before the situation becomes critical, as well as simplify workflows for healthcare professionals.
Smartphone App for Liver Cirrhosis Detection
Researchers in this study developed a smartphone app that can detect jaundice severity with high accuracy. They took pictures of the forehead and white of the eye of sixty-six patients with cirrhosis using their smartphones. Moreover, after the images were calibrated for lighting conditions, an analysis was done to train the algorithm, which can predict the bilirubin level based on the yellowness in the image.
Furthermore, when the predictions were checked in comaporision with the blood test data. The white of the eyes had the strongest correlation.
Co Author of the study, Professor Raj Mookerjee, said,
One of the reasons that liver disease is so challenging is that patients can deteriorate very quickly. It’s an unfortunate fact that if a patient arrives at the clinic much more jaundiced than they were previously, the chances are that they have already progressed their disease considerably. The approach that we’ve assessed in this study could allow us to monitor patients from their own homes much more frequently, than is currently possible and, hopefully, detect worsening of clinical signs and symptoms before things become critical.
He added,
You can look at a patient and tell if they have jaundice right away. But it’s a not a question of if the skin looks yellow or not, it’s about how much more yellow it looks, which gives you an indication of how badly the liver function has deteriorated,
The smartphone app gives us this degree of accuracy. It’s a remarkable feat of engineering and shows the power of clinicians and engineers collaborating to solve urgent health care problems.
