Can AI screen for heart disease using photos of your tongue and face?
A new study from China suggests that an AI system can identify coronary heart disease by analyzing photographs of a patient's face and tongue. While the results were highly accurate in a small test, experts caution that these visual markers are not definitive proof of heart disease.
Why it matters
This research highlights the potential for non-invasive, low-cost AI diagnostic tools in healthcare, though it requires further validation.
<p>An AI system trained on photographs of the face and tongue correctly identified every patient with coronary heart disease (CHD) in a small test, according to a new study from China.</p> <p><b>By David C. Gaze for The Conversation</b></p> <p>The researchers recruited 518 people: 200 with diagnosed CHD and 318 healthy volunteers. Each had their face and tongue photographed with a purpose-built scanning system. The pictures were analysed using deep learning, a type of AI that learns to spot patterns in images.</p> <p>The system examined the tongue and face photographs separately, then combined what each had picked up to predict who had CHD. Using both together performed better than either alone.
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