Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33986429›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2021

Predicting sex from retinal fundus photographs using automated deep learning.

Edward Korot, Nikolas Pontikos, Xiaoxuan Liu, Siegfried K Wagner, Livia Faes, Josef Huemer, Konstantinos Balaskas, Alastair K Denniston, Anthony Khawaja, Pearse A Keane

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
75citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

75 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Reduced AI-based sex classification performance in clinically unaffected fellow eyes of patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy: comparison with central serous chorioretinopathy and controls.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2026
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  17. The march to harmonized imaging standards for retinal imaging.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2025
    Review
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15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Edward KorotNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Nikolas PontikosNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Xiaoxuan LiuNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Siegfried K WagnerNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Livia FaesNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Josef HuemerNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Konstantinos BalaskasNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Alastair K DennistonNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Anthony KhawajaNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK. anthony.khawaja@nhs.net.
Pearse A KeaneNIHR Biomedical Research Center at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK. pearse.keane1@nhs.net.

Funding

STUDIES OF RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA AND ALLIED DISEASESU01EY002014 · NEI · HARVARD UNIVERSITY (MEDICAL SCHOOL) · PI BERSON, ELIOT L · 1988 to 1989
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STUDIES OF RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA AND ALLIED DISEASESU10EY002014 · NEI · HARVARD UNIVERSITY (MEDICAL SCHOOL) · PI BERSON, ELIOT L · 1990 to 1993
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HSRD VA CRE 12-023Medical Research Council MC_PC_17228Medical Research Council MC_PC_19005Medical Research Council MC_QA137853Medical Research Council MR/T000953/1Medical Research Council MR/T019050/1Medical Research Council MR/T040912/1Moorfields Eye Charity 190016ANational Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology NIHR-CS-2014-12-023UK Research and Innovation MR/T019050/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Deep learning may transform health care, but model development has largely been dependent on availability of advanced technical expertise. Herein we present the development of a deep learning model by clinicians without coding, which predicts reported sex from retinal fundus photographs. A model was trained on 84,743 retinal fundus photos from the UK Biobank dataset. External validation was performed on 252 fundus photos from a tertiary ophthalmic referral center. For internal validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the code free deep learning (CFDL) model was 0.93. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy (ACC) were 88.8%, 83.6%, 87.3% and 86.5%, and for external validation were 83.9%, 72.2%, 78.2% and 78.6% respectively. Clinicians are currently unaware of distinct retinal feature variations between males and females, highlighting the importance of model explainability for this task. The model performed significantly worse when foveal pathology was present in the external validation dataset, ACC: 69.4%, compared to 85.4% in healthy eyes, suggesting the fovea is a salient region for model performance OR (95% CI): 0.36 (0.19, 0.70) p = 0.0022. Automated machine learning (AutoML) may enable clinician-driven automated discovery of novel insights and disease biomarkers.

Indexed as

Deep LearningFundus OculiSex FactorsAlgorithmsAutomationDatasets as TopicFemaleHumansMaleReproducibility of Results

Identifiers

PMID33986429
PMCPMC8119673

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.