A new smartphone tool can quickly and accurately diagnose a stroke The tool scans a person’s face for subtle signs that signal trouble Tests show it is 82% accurate WEDNESDAY, June 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A new smartphone tool could help paramedics identify a stroke in seconds by scanning the patient’s face. The AI-driven tool analyzes facial symmetry and specific muscle movements to detect subtle signs of , researchers explained. “One of the key parameters that affects people with stroke is that their facial muscles typically become unilateral, so one side of the face behaves differently from the other side of the face,” said lead researcher , a doctoral student with RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
“We’ve got the AI tools and the image-processing tools that can detect whether there is any change in the asymmetry of the smile -- that is the key to detection in our case,” de Oliveira added in a university news release. The tool was 82% accurate in detecting stroke when shown video recordings of 14 patients who’d had a stroke and 11 healthy people, researchers reported in the June issue of the journal “Our face-screening tool has a success rate for detecting stroke that compares favorably to paramedics,” said senior researcher , a professor with RMIT’s School of Engineering. “We have developed a simple smartphone tool that paramedics can use to instantly determine whether a patient is post-stroke and then inform the hospital before the ambu.
