A group of scientists have developed an app
that detects abnormal eye reflections from pictures. Dr. Bryan Shaw, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry at Baylor University, Texas, helped develop an app that can
detect disease early in children by scanning their pictures for leukocoria. In
normal eyes, a test for light reflecting from the back of the retina shows up
red. However, in those with leukocoria or ‘white eye’, the light reflection
appears white.
Parents can use the app to scan
pictures of their children from their phone to detect the abnormal white
reflection, which is a characteristic found in eye conditions including
retinoblastoma (a rare cancer most common in young children), Coat’s disease,
cataracts, amblyopia and hyperopia.
The app, called CRADLE White Eye Detector,
is available for free on IOS and Android devices.
In a study published in the
journal Science Advances, the White Eye Detector app was tested on
52,982 children’s photos of 20 children with confirmed eye diseases and 20 with
normal eyes. The app was able to detect known leukocoria in 1 in 3 pictures and
around 1.3 years before the child was diagnosed in 80 percent of the cases. The
researchers are working on improving these results in their new version.
The downside is that the app can’t
distinguish between a white pupil reflection due to eye disease and the white
eye that occasionally occurs in normal eyes.
“What is really needed is an app that can tell when white eye is due to
an eye disease”, says Ashwin Reddy, a retinoblastoma consultant at the Royal
London Hospital in the UK.
Shaw thinks it’s difficult to distinguish
this based on appearance alone but does claim that white eye appears 10 times
more frequently in those with eye disease. The purpose is to encourage early
diagnosis.
Researcher Shaw’s own son lost an
eye to retinoblastoma after being diagnosed at only four months old.
“Unfortunately, we caught it too late. Looking back, we found leukocoria
showing up in pictures taken when he was only 12 days old.” said Shaw.
Lisa Christian, an associate clinical professor at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Waterloo said that “I would like to remind the reader that optometrists provide comprehensive eye care to children starting at six months of age, and parents can also choose to take their child to an optometrist to confirm the leukocoria diagnosis.”
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2218476-app-can-detect-signs-of-eye-diseases-in-kids-by-scanning-your-photos/
https://www.newsweek.com/scientists-app-see-cancer-eyes-kids-1462616
