Google has done it again!
With stress levels hitting the roof and eating habits going haywire, heart attacks are getting younger, as young as in the late 20s even.
If reports are to be believed, Google AI researchers and Verily Life Sciences have created an AI algorithm that can predict your risk of cardiovascular diseases by just looking at images of your retina.
It is being said that the accuracy of the system is as good as the ones used by traditional means and accepted by doctors and the medical fraternity worldwide to predict who could be at risk of a heart attack. Also, this new system is much less invasive than the regular procedures that are used now, so it could also encourage those who are fearful of hospital procedures and tests.
What does it predict and how?
Image Credit: engadget
Doctors have been examining the eye for long to spot symptoms associated with diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol and even some types of cancers. Using this idea, the researchers at Google and Verily have tried to train the AI software in such a way that it can also take a look at the image of the retina, especially at the blood vessels present in the eye, and analyse a person’s health and risks.
How accurate is it?
Image Credit: theverge
If you compare this with the European SCORE risk calculator that uses a blood test and is popularly used to predict the risk of cardiovascular diseases, it gave the right scan 72 percent of the time from the same study set used by the AI system.
At the moment, by looking at the image, the algorithm is able to assess a person’s age as close to within 3.26 years of the exact age, can predict their smoking status with an accuracy rate of 71 percent and can also check the blood pressure range within 11 units of the higher number that is used to scan a healthy range.
Yet another achievement for Google and AI, for a much healthier cause now.
Read Also: What Is Cardiac Arrest, How Is It Different From Heart Attack
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