Diagnosis by selfie

A smartphone with the accuracy of a doctor will detect a stroke in four minutes

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

The app evaluates a person's speech and facial expressions to diagnose a stroke. Severe stroke is not difficult to determine by simple symptoms, but lighter forms of acute blood supply to the brain are less obvious even for doctors. Then a person is diagnosed and he loses precious time. The timing of medical care remains the key to recovery after a stroke.

Millions of neurons die every minute during a stroke, so prompt diagnosis and treatment are critical for the rehabilitation of a patient after a stroke. Severe stroke can be easily identified visually, but its lighter forms are not always easy to identify, so doctors prescribe instrumental diagnostics for the patient. And this often delays the final diagnosis for several hours.

The main signs of stroke include confusion of consciousness and speech, asymmetry of facial muscles, numbness in one part of the body, sudden hearing and vision disorders. Scientists have decided to develop a tool for assessing a person's speech and facial expressions with a smartphone in order to quickly diagnose milder forms of stroke if quality medical care is not available. A press release from Pennsylvania State University New tool can diagnose strokes with a smartphone tells about their work.

To train the AI algorithm, use the data of patients who went to the emergency department with suspected stroke. In total, video recordings of more than 80 people were analyzed.

Photo: Houston Methodist Hospital.

This is an important distinguishing feature of the study, since people's data was evaluated in real time, as if a doctor was looking at the patient at the same time.

The accuracy of AI-based diagnostics in a smartphone was 79%, which is comparable to the results of clinical diagnostics of emergency department doctors, who also use additional tools, including computed tomography, to make a diagnosis.

"Our tool allows you to save valuable time in the diagnosis of stroke, because it allows you to assess the patient's condition in just four minutes," the scientists stressed.

It is known that early detection of stroke determines the outcome of a cardiovascular event. There are effective drugs for treatment, but late diagnosis reduces their effect to a minimum.

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