Google Successfully Uses Machine Learning To Detect Diabetic Retinopathy (betanews.com) 30
BrianFagioli writes from a report via BetaNews: Diabetic eye disease is caused by retinopathy. Affected diabetics can have small tears inside the eye, causing bleeding. Over time, they can lose vision, and ultimately, they can go blind. Luckily, Google has been trying to use machine learning to detect diabetic retinopathy. Guess what? The search giant has seen much success. Not only are the computers able to detect the disease at the same level as ophthalmologists, but Google is actually slightly better! "A few years ago, a Google research team began studying whether machine learning could be used to screen for diabetic retinopathy (DR). Today, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, we've published our results: a deep learning algorithm capable of interpreting signs of DR in retinal photographs, potentially helping doctors screen more patients, especially in underserved communities with limited resources," says Lily Peng, MD Ph.D., Product Manger at Google. She goes on to say "our algorithm performs on par with the ophthalmologists, achieving both high sensitivity and specificity. [...] For example, on the validation set described in Figure 2, the algorithm has a F-score of 0.95, which is slightly better than the median. F-score of the 8 ophthalmologists we consulted (measured at 0.91)."
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The cornea does not have a "reticulum." Either.
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He's just slutting out his aliexpress referral link.
That's nice.... (Score:1)
Thrilling.
So now you'll know even sooner that you're going to lose your eyesight eventually.... I suppose this might give you more opportunity to prepare for it, but I expect all that it will actually do is give you more time to be dreading the future.
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Exactly. Speaking as a thirty year type one diabetic who has gone through the "waking up with black spots" phase (whoops, there's your retinopathy), having it confirmed by the doc (more like, they inject you with this crazy neon yellow fluid and shoot a bright light into your eyes looking for the exact areas of damage), and the two month long series of laser treatments to stop the retinal bleeding (dear heaven, thank you for the miracles of modern medicine - not to mention my sexy ophthalmologist) and ongo
Re:That's nice.... (Score:4, Informative)
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Some fool wrote:
A diabetic usually knows if he has diabetic retinopathy. Needing to go to an ophthalmologist is usually the second or third clue. Just like neuropathy, retinopathy is a complication that's fairly easy to self diagnose.
No, diabetics don't know they have diabetic retinopathy in the early stages [nih.gov]
. WTF did you get that idea from?
What are the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy and DME?
The early stages of diabetic retinopathy usually have no symptoms. The disease often progresses unnoticed until it affects vision. Bleeding from abnormal retinal blood vessels can cause the appearance of “floating” spots. These spots sometimes clear on their own. But without prompt treatment, bleeding often recurs, increasing the risk of permanent vision loss. If DME occurs, it can cause blurred vision.
Because the disease progresses slowly, you most likely won't notice until stage 4 - when blood vessels in your retina cause floaters that block your vision. You'll probably assume that any temporary blurriness (which doesn't always happen) is caused by fatigue or eye strain, and since you don't really notice it after a while, and adapt to it, you don't realize what happens.
Diabetic retinopathy may progress through four stages:
1. Mild nonproliferative retinopathy. Small areas of balloon-like swelling in the retina’s tiny blood vessels, called microaneurysms, occur at this earliest stage of the disease. These microaneurysms may leak fluid into the retina.
2. Moderate nonproliferative retinopathy. As the disease progresses, blood vessels that nourish the retina may swell and distort. They may also lose their ability to transport blood. Both conditions cause characteristic changes to the appearance of the retina and may contribute to DME.
3. Severe nonproliferative retinopathy. Many more blood vessels are blocked, depriving blood supply to areas of the retina. These areas secrete growth factors that signal the retina to grow new blood vessels.
4. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). At this advanced stage, growth factors secreted by the retina trigger the proliferation of new blood vessels, which grow along the inside surface of the retina and into the vitreous gel, the fluid that fills the eye. The new blood vessels are fragile, which makes them more likely to leak and bleed. Accompanying scar tissue can contract and cause retinal detachment—the pulling away of the retina from underlying tissue, like wallpaper peeling away from a wall. Retinal detachment can lead to permanent vision loss.
Re:That's nice.... (Score:5, Informative)
Certainly it doesn't always work in every case. But that's true of any treatment you care to mention.
Panretinal photocoagulation (with lasers) has saved the sight of hundreds of thousands of people. Over the past few years, on top of this, there have been major advances using antiVEGF treatments like Lucentis/ranibizumab.
It is *eminently* worthwhile for diabetics to be screened for eye disease. The problem is not that we can't treat it - it's that treatment is best done *before* the patient notices any problem. Hence, screening.
Who called it AI? (Score:2)
I don't see anyone calling this AI except you. Whatever pattern matching you use to determine when to deploy this garbage stock comment, I think it has misfired here. ..or, wait, do you also have some pointless objection to calling this machine learning?
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Well, I guess the difference is that while it would be a stretch to call this AI, it is very reasonable to call it machine learning - and that's what they called it. And yeah, I get it, you have some pointless axe to grind about people generally overusing the term AI. Nobody cares.
But I will say that this exact comment, which is a waste of space every time it crops up on this kind of story, at least provided me a laugh this time. Your shitty, pouty reply is just icing on the entertainment cake. I would h
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