Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36966118›Full record

ArticleThe Lancet. Digital health2023

A deep learning model for novel systemic biomarkers in photographs of the external eye: a retrospective study.

Boris Babenko, Ilana Traynis, Christina Chen, Preeti Singh, Akib Uddin, Jorge Cuadros, Lauren P Daskivich, April Y Maa, Ramasamy Kim, Eugene Yu-Chuan Kang and 9 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Lancet. Digital health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–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

19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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  15. Diabetes Technology Meeting 2023.Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Boris BabenkoGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Ilana TraynisAdvanced Clinical, Deerfield, IL, USA.
Christina ChenGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Preeti SinghGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Akib UddinGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Jorge CuadrosEyePACS, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Lauren P DaskivichOphthalmic Services and Eye Health Programs, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine/Roski Eye Institute, Los Angeles, CA USA.
April Y MaaDepartment of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Regional Telehealth Services, Technology-based Eye Care Services (TECS) division, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 7, Decatur, GA, USA.
Ramasamy KimAravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Eugene Yu-Chuan KangDepartment of Ophthalmology, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Yossi MatiasGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Greg S CorradoGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Lily PengGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Dale R WebsterGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Christopher SemtursGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Jonathan KrauseGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Avinash V VaradarajanGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Naama HammelGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA. Electronic address: nhammel@google.com.
Yun LiuGoogle Health, Palo Alto, CA, USA. Electronic address: liuyun@google.com.

Funding

Southern California Clinical and Translational Science InstituteUL1TR001855 · NCATS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI Thomas A Buchanan, Michele D. Kipke · 2016 to 2026
$81.3M
Southern California Clinical and Translational Science InstituteUL1TR000130 · NCATS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI BUCHANAN, THOMAS A · 2012 to 2015
$36.0M
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR000130NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001855
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPhotographs of the external eye were recently shown to reveal signs of diabetic retinal disease and elevated glycated haemoglobin. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that external eye photographs contain information about additional systemic medical conditions.

methodsWe developed a deep learning system (DLS) that takes external eye photographs as input and predicts systemic parameters, such as those related to the liver (albumin, aspartate aminotransferase [AST]); kidney (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR], urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio [ACR]); bone or mineral (calcium); thyroid (thyroid stimulating hormone); and blood (haemoglobin, white blood cells [WBC], platelets). This DLS was trained using 123 130 images from 38 398 patients with diabetes undergoing diabetic eye screening in 11 sites across Los Angeles county, CA, USA. Evaluation focused on nine prespecified systemic parameters and leveraged three validation sets (A, B, C) spanning 25 510 patients with and without diabetes undergoing eye screening in three independent sites in Los Angeles county, CA, and the greater Atlanta area, GA, USA. We compared performance against baseline models incorporating available clinicodemographic variables (eg, age, sex, race and ethnicity, years with diabetes).

findingsRelative to the baseline, the DLS achieved statistically significant superior performance at detecting AST >36·0 U/L, calcium <8·6 mg/dL, eGFR <60·0 mL/min/1·73 m

interpretationWe found further evidence that external eye photographs contain biomarkers spanning multiple organ systems. Such biomarkers could enable accessible and non-invasive screening of disease. Further work is needed to understand the translational implications.

fundingGoogle.

Indexed as

Deep LearningDiabetic RetinopathyAlbuminsBiomarkersCalciumHumansRetrospective StudiesAlbuminsBiomarkersCalcium

Identifiers

PMID36966118
PMCPMC11818944

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.