A computer algorithm could instantly diagnose you with diabetes, cancer or tell you if you’re at risk of a stroke, just by taking a picture of your tongue.
The program, developed by Iraqi and Australian researchers, has achieved 98 percent accuracy in predicting various diseases by analyzing the color of the human tongue.
The proposed imaging system, which mimics traditional Chinese medicine, can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder diseases, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal problems.
Engineering researchers from Middle Technical University (MTU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) used 5,260 images to train machine learning algorithms to detect tongue color in a series of experiments.
Scientists predict that in the future, smartphones will be used to diagnose diseases in this way.
A camera placed 20 centimeters away from a patient recorded the color of his tongue and the imaging system predicted his health status in real time
Examining the tongue for signs of disease is a 2,000-year-old practice widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, explains lead author Professor Ali Al-Naji
A new one paper A paper in Technologies describes how the proposed system analyzes the color of the tongue to make an instant diagnosis, confirming that AI is the key to many advances in medicine.
For the study, two university hospitals in the Middle East provided 60 tongue images of patients with various health problems.
A camera placed 20 centimeters away from the patient recorded the color of his tongue and the imaging system predicted his health status in real time.
The artificial intelligence (AI) model was able to link tongue color to the disease in almost all cases.
Examining the tongue for signs of disease is also a 2,000-year-old practice widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, explains lead author and associate professor at MTU and UniSA Ali Al-Naji.
“The color, shape and thickness of the tongue can reveal a whole host of health problems,” he said.
People with diabetes typically have a yellow tongue, cancer patients have a purple tongue with a thick, greasy coating, and patients who have had an acute stroke typically have an unusually shaped, red tongue.
‘A white tongue can indicate anemia; people with severe cases of COVID-19 often have a deep red tongue; and an indigo or purple tongue indicates vascular and gastrointestinal problems or asthma.’
According to Javaan Chahl, co-author of the study at UniSA, a smartphone will in the future be used to diagnose diseases in this way.
“These results confirm that computerized tongue analysis is a safe, efficient, easy-to-use and affordable method for disease screening, supporting modern methods with an age-old practice,” he said.
