Researchers Successfully Used Smartphone Images To Detect Anemia, A Cheaper Non-Invasive Diagnostic Technique That May Widen Accessibility In Low And Middle-Income Countries
Researchers from University College London and the University of Ghana were able to successfully predict if children have anemia using just a set of images captured by a smartphone.
This finding came as the result of a study recently published in PLOS ONE, in which the team experimented with a novel non-invasive diagnostic approach using smartphone pictures of the face and eye.
This technique may make screening for anemia much more accessible for children in low and middle-income countries– such as Ghana– where iron deficiency causes high rates of anemia.
This would be possible since the screening tool is significantly cheaper than existing diagnostic options, and it also allows results to be delivered in the same sitting.
According to the Mayo Clinic, anemia is a condition that causes a lack of healthy red blood cells. Also referred to as “low hemoglobin,” anemia results in a reduced concentration of hemoglobin levels in the blood– meaning that oxygen is not efficiently transported throughout the body.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 2 billion people worldwide are anemic. And the condition can have drastic impacts on child development by impairing cognitive development and increasing infectious disease susceptibility.
Around the world, the most common cause is iron deficiency. However, other conditions can also contribute to the development of anemia– including malaria, sickle-cell disease, and blood loss.
Diagnosing anemia traditionally required blood samples to be drawn– which is expensive for both patients and healthcare providers.
Traveling to the hospital can also create cost-related inequalities– since families are often required to make two trips.
michaeljung – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
The first trip is to get their book sample taken; then, the second is to collect their results– since samples must be transported from the clinic to the lab for analysis. HemoCue, a handheld device, was developed in the 1980s and provided more immediate results. But, this technique still presented large upfront and ongoing expenses in addition to needing a blood sample.
For this study, though, the scientists decided to build on prior research centered around an app– known as neoSCB– that successfully detected jaundice in newborn babies. The team knew that, due to the way hemoglobin absorbs light, it has an extremely characteristic color. So, they set out to design a procedure using smartphone photographs to predict whether or not anemia is present.
The researchers analyzed images taken of 43 children who were under the age of 4. These children were recruited to participate in the study in 2018, and the photos were of three bodily regions where minimal skin pigmentation occurs– the lower eyelid, the lower lip, and the white of the eye.
The researchers found that after the images were evaluated together to predict blood concentration of hemoglobin, they were able to successfully detect every case of the most severe anemia classification. The team was also able to detect milder anemia cases at rates that are still clinically significant.
“We are excited to see these promising results in a group that is often underrepresented in research using smartphone diagnostics. An affordable and reliable technique to screen for anemia using a smartphone could drive long-term improvements in quality of life for a large number of people,” explained Ph.D. candidate Thomas Wemyss, the study’s first author.
According to Dr. Judit Meek, anemia is also a severe problem among infants– especially those living in low and middle-income countries.
“So we hope this sort of technology will lead to earlier detection and treatment in the near future,” Dr. Meek said.
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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