Japanese researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based tool that detects chronic diseases from a chest X-ray.
An x-ray of your lungs would determine your state of health general according to the results of a study published on August 16 in the scientific journal The Lancet. Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University (Japan) have created a artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of estimating your age simply by analyzing a chest X-ray. This tool can help report potential chronic illnesses related to a difference between your estimated age from the X-ray and your actual age. The goal? Detect diseases earlier to implement treatment as quickly as possible.
“Chronological age is one of the most critical factors in medicine”
The researchers built a tool capable of analyzing chest x-rays and estimating a person’s age. Scientists have used more than 67,000 chest X-rays of 36,051 people in good health, collected between 2008 and 2021. The researchers then tested the model on 34,197 X-rays from patients with chronic diseases as high blood pressure or lung diseases such as COPD. The developed model showed a correlation coefficient of 0.95 between the age estimated by the AI and the chronological age. “Generally, a correlation coefficient of 0.9 or more is considered very strong” reads the study. They observed a correlation between the age estimated by the AI tool and chronic diseases when the estimated age was higher than the real age of the patient. In other words, the higher the age estimated by the AI compared to the chronological age, the more likely the individuals were to have these diseases.
“Chronological age is one of the most critical factors in medicine“said Yasuhito Mitsuyama, lead author of the study.”Our results suggest that apparent age based on chest X-ray can accurately reflect health conditions beyond chronological age”. This age estimate could serve as an early warning system for various chronic diseases.