Artificial intelligence recognizes patients with increased intracranial pressure
International study involving the Medical Center - University of Freiburg presents automated image analysis for the detection of increased intracranial pressure / Diagnostics helpful for early detection of brain tumors?
Increased intracranial pressure is a consequence of various, sometimes dangerous diseases, such as a brain tumor. In most cases, a swelling of the optic nerve can be seen at the back of the eye, which is referred to as a congestive papilla. However, it is not always easy to correctly differentiate a congestive papilla from other, similar-looking changes to the optic nerve. In the future, physicians could be supported in this by artificial intelligence (AI). This is demonstrated by an international research team led by the Singapore National Eye Center with the participation of neuro-ophthalmologists from the Medical Center - University of Freiburg: an algorithm was trained using 14,341 photos of the back of the eye to diagnose pathological changes in the optic nerve and correctly distinguish them from normal findings. The algorithm was then tested with a further 1,505 images, including some from Freiburg: In 96 percent of the photos, it correctly identified increased intracranial pressure as the cause of optic nerve swelling. In 85 percent, a healthy patient was correctly classified as healthy. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 14.
"The algorithm performed very well, especially considering that it is difficult even for experienced physicians to distinguish pathological from healthy changes," says Prof. Dr. Wolf Lagrèze from the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. "Such systems can be used in emergency outpatient clinics or regions with a lack of medical care in order to recognize patients with increased intracranial pressure due to life-threatening diseases in good time," says Lagrèze. A special feature of the project was that images from people from different continents and ethnic backgrounds were evaluated during both the training and test phases. A total of 24 centers from 15 countries were involved.
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Prof. Dr. Wolf A. Lagrèze
Head physician
Section for Neuroophthalmology, Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Treatment
Eye Center
Uniklinik Freiburg
Phone: 0761 270-40110
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