Could a robot save your sight? AI is being used for the first time to diagnose a diabetes-induced condition that can cause blindness

• Diabetic retinopathy can cause blindness in patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes
• It can be spotted by haemorrhages and other anomalies in the retina
• AI technology – called  IDx-DR – has been developed to spot early warning signs
• It received FDA approval after displaying 87% sensitivity to the condition, and is now being used in a hospital in Iowa 

One hospital is now allowing artificial intelligence to take the reigns and diagnose its patients.

The UI Health Care-Iowa River Landing in Coralville, Iowa has become the first hospital to adopt a new AI-powered machine to spot the early warning signs of diabetic retinopathy.

If left undiagnosed, the condition, which arises as a complication for patients who suffer with either type one or type two diabetes, can cause blindness. 

The machine is capable of scanning and analysing the retinas of at-risk patients and will provide its own diagnosis without any human assistance.

Dubbed IDx-DR, the technology has an 87 per cent sensitivity for the disease.

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Dr Michael Abramoff is president and director of IDx and a professional ophthalmologist. He developed IDx-DR, which is already in-use at one Iowa hospital, to help diagnose patients 

IDx-DR passed clinical tests on more than 900 patients back in April.

It was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after it was proven to display an 87 per cent sensitivity for diabetic retinopathy.

The AI-powered machine is now being used by the Diabetes and Endocrinology Centre at the UI Health Care-Iowa River Landing in Coralville, Iowa.

This department receives around 7,200 patient visits per year, according to the hospital. 

It is hoped that IDx-DR will make the diagnosis process easier, by providing accessibility to this exam outside of an eye specialist.

The machine can also provide results within minutes, which could speed up tests.

IDx-DR uses a retinal camera to take images of the patient's eye.

After taking the photos, the machine learning algorithms analyse the images 'the same way I do as a clinician,' Dr Michael Abramoff, president and director of IDx and a professional ophthalmologist, told the Iowa Gazette.

IDx-DR can then determine if the patient has the condition and provide a diagnosis. 

'It looks for different lesions like haemorrhages, microaneurysms, many other abnormalities you get from diabetes in the retina if it's abnormal, which is what I do when I look for a patient,' Dr Abramoff added.

'Then it analyses the combination of all these different features and it gives you a clinical decision by itself.'  

Dr Abramoff admits the current applications of the technology are somewhat limited, but is hopeful it will expand in the future and be used to spot more diseases.

'I see a great future,' the creator of IDx-DR said.

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The AI looks for different lesions like haemorrhages, microaneurysms, many other abnormalities in the retina that arise from diabetes

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In order to be accepted by the FDA, Dr Abramoff conducted clinical trials on 900 patients. These showed the machine had an 87 per cent sensitivity to detecting the disease in patients

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The technology is being used by medical professionals to spot the early signs of diabetic retinopathy. If left diagnosed, the condition can cause blindness. It arises as a complication for patients that suffer with either type one or type two diabetes

Iowa is not the only place that sees AI having a place in the future of healthcare. 

Hospitals across the UK have also started to look to AI technology as a means of improving wait times and diagnosis accuracy in medical institutions. 

University College London Hospital (UCLH), in Bloomsbury, London, is pioneering the technology in a bid 'to make services safer, quicker and more efficient.'

WHAT IS DIABETIC RETINOPATHY?

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common form of eye disease affecting sufferers of the blood-sugar condition.

It causes around 1,280 new cases of blindness every year in the UK. Nearly 7.7 million people in the US are affected by the condition.

Diabetic retinopathy usually impacts people who have had type 1 or 2 diabetes for several years.

It occurs when changes in blood-glucose levels result in alternations to the blood vessels in the retina.

This can cause the vessels to swell and leak fluid into the back of the eye.

Abnormal blood vessels can also grow on the retina's surface, which can affect vision and cause blindness.

Early stage diabetic retinopathy can be painless. In advanced cases, symptoms may include:

• Sudden vision changes
• Eye floaters and spots
• Double vision
• Eye pain

At-risk people include those with poor blood-glucose control, protein in their urine, high blood pressure, prolonged diabetes and raised fats in their blood.

Diabetic retinopathy can be prevented through regular eye examinations and proper diabetes management.

Its main treatment is laser surgery.

Source: Diabetes.co.uk

Professor Bryan Williams, director of research at UCLH's NHS Foundation Trust, claims AI could instantly assess a patient in A&E who is breathless and needs an X-ray.

This crucial time-saving step may allow patients in life-threatening conditions to be fast tracked for immediate treatment.

An Oxford hospital is also using AI to quickly and accurately diagnose heart disease.

The machine is more accurate than the best cardiologists and experts claim it has the potential to 'save the NHS'.

The system has been successful in the early trials and, if its results are confirmed, similar AI scans could soon be available for free on the NHS.

The AI, called Ultromics, is being used at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.

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The device, dubbed the IDx-DR, uses a combination of software and a retinal camera to take images of the patient's eye. After taking the photos, the AI analyses the images 'the same way I do as a clinician,' Dr Michael Abramoff said

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Dr Abramoff (pictured) admits the current applications of the technology are limited, with a narrow scope, but he is hopeful it will expand in the future and be used to spot more diseases

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The technology could help doctors spot the signs of the disease earlier and more regularly, without the need for long face-o-face consultations with an expert. Dr Abramoff (pictured in his younger year) is an expert in the field and helped create the AI

Ultromics is designed to improve the accuracy of heart scans.

As it stands, of the 60,000 heart scans carried out on the NHS each year – some 12,000 are misdiagnosed by cardiologists. 

Ultromics was developed by Professor Paul Leeson, who taught the AI system how to recognise heart disease by feeding it 1,000 heart scans of patients from the last seven years.

Information about whether the patient went on to develop heart problems was also provided.

The technology has already been tested in six cardiology units and the results of the study are to be published later this year.

Early indications from the data are promising and the system is predicted to save the NHS up to £300 million ($400 million) a year.

'There is about £2.2 billion ($1.67 billion) spent on pathology services in the NHS.

'You may be able to reduce that by 50 per cent. AI may be the thing that saves the NHS,' geneticist Sir John Bell told the BBC.

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO WORRIED ABOUT AI?

It is an issue troubling some of the greatest minds in the world at the moment, from Bill Gates to Elon Musk.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk described AI as our 'biggest existential threat' and likened its development as 'summoning the demon'.

He believes super intelligent machines could use humans as pets.

Professor Stephen Hawking said it is a 'near certainty' that a major technological disaster will threaten humanity in the next 1,000 to 10,000 years.

They could steal jobs 

More than 60 percent of people fear that robots will lead to there being fewer jobs in the next ten years, according to a 2016 YouGov survey.

And 27 percent predict that it will decrease the number of jobs 'a lot' with previous research suggesting admin and service sector workers will be the hardest hit.

As well as posing a threat to our jobs, other experts believe AI could 'go rogue' and become too complex for scientists to understand.

A quarter of the respondents predicted robots will become part of everyday life in just 11 to 20 years, with 18 percent predicting this will happen within the next decade. 

They could 'go rogue' 

Computer scientist Professor Michael Wooldridge said AI machines could become so intricate that engineers don't fully understand how they work.

If experts don't understand how AI algorithms function, they won't be able to predict when they fail.

This means driverless cars or intelligent robots could make unpredictable 'out of character' decisions during critical moments, which could put people in danger.

For instance, the AI behind a driverless car could choose to swerve into pedestrians or crash into barriers instead of deciding to drive sensibly.

They could wipe out humanity 

Some people believe AI will wipe out humans completely.

'Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this,' DeepMind's Shane Legg said in a recent interview.

He singled out artificial intelligence, or AI, as the 'number one risk for this century'.

Musk warned that AI poses more of a threat to humanity than North Korea.

'If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea,' the 46-year-old wrote on Twitter.

'Nobody likes being regulated, but everything (cars, planes, food, drugs, etc) that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too.'

Musk has consistently advocated for governments and private institutions to apply regulations on AI technology.

He has argued that controls are necessary in order protect machines from advancing out of human control

Is this the breakthrough that will soon end diabetes? New implant would tackle cause of the disease

A pouch that’s implanted under the skin has the potential to ‘cure’ diabetes, say researchers.

The size of a credit card, the implant contains tiny tubes which can be injected with cells that produce the hormone insulin.

Research has shown that blood vessels grow into and around the pouch and help the cells mature — essentially creating a fully functional organ that can produce insulin and control blood sugar levels.

Researchers in the U.S. are now starting a trial with patients with type 1 diabetes.

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End of an era? A pouch that’s implanted under the skin has the potential to ‘cure’ diabetes

Type 1, which affects more than 300,000 people in the UK, occurs when the immune system attacks the islet cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. As a result, the pancreas produces little or none of the hormone.

With type 2 diabetes, insulin production drops, or the cells become resistant to its effects, so blood sugar levels remain high and eventually damage capillaries that feed major organs and obstruct blood flow, causing irreversible damage.

For years, the only treatments for type 1 diabetes have been regular insulin injections, often several times a day, or insulin pumps.

Nearly 30 per cent of patients with type 2 diabetes also need insulin injections to control the disease. But injecting insulin can be inconvenient and is not a cure.

The new implant, the Sernova Cell Pouch, is designed to tackle the cause of the disease rather than the symptoms by transplanting new islet cells.

Islet cell transplants have been performed for more than a decade — they usually involve injecting cells from deceased donors into a vein in the liver — but research suggests that not all the transplanted islets survive, and that most patients require more than one transplant. The patient must then take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their life.

The pouch implant overcomes these problems because it effectively becomes an insulin-generating organ in itself and its cells are protected from an immune system attack, so patients don’t need anti-rejection drugs.

It is made from a special polymer material which is safe to use in the body and does not break down. Pores in its surface help blood vessels develop in it and it has tiny tubes in which the transplanted cells are placed. A special coating prevents it from being attacked by the immune system.

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Fact: For years, the only treatments for type 1 diabetes have been regular insulin injections, often several times a day, or insulin pumps

The treatment involves two procedures. First, under general anaesthetic, the pouch is implanted under the skin of the abdomen and left for around three weeks to allow blood vessels and tissue to grow into it.

In a second procedure, doctors inject thousands of donor islet cells into the pouch’s tiny tubes. With the blood supply already established, the islet cells are well-supported and are expected to work as they would in a normal pancreas. A 2011 study by the University of Alberta in Canada showed that diabetic mice no longer needed insulin injections after 100 days of having the pouch fitted.

The treatment has also been shown to be safe in humans. The islet cells were able to produce insulin and link up to the circulatory system. It is now being tested in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Researchers suggest the technique may be used for other chronic diseases in future, such as haemophilia and Parkinson’s disease, which result from a lack of specific compounds.

With haemophilia, the pouch could be injected with cells that help maintain constant levels of the blood clotting agent Factor VIII, which patients lack.

Parkinson’s is characterised by a lack of dopamine, which helps control movement, so patients would have dopamine-producing cells injected into the pouch.

In the new trial at the University of Chicago, seven patients with type 1 diabetes will be given the Sernova Cell Pouch, and their blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as any side-effects, will be monitored for a year.

Dr Emily Burns, of Diabetes UK, says: ‘Scientists are searching for ways to replace the insulin-producing cells, and making implantable devices is one such route.

‘Cell replacement and regeneration is an exciting area of research, but it’s still at an early stage. Clinical trials are needed to test different approaches. If trials prove successful, it could really change the way we treat type 1 diabetes in the future.’

Elsewhere, regularly eating fish has been found to lower the risk of dying of heart disease in adults with diabetes, according to the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.

Diabetes raises the risk of the disease, and researchers from Georgia Southern University, in the U.S., who monitored more than 1,100 diabetic adults for around 18 years, found those who ate fish more than twice a week lived two years longer than those who ate fish less than once a week.

Fish is abundant in omega-3, thought to reduce the production of inflammatory compounds which raise the risk of heart disease.

A 2,000-year-old scroll has finally been decoded by experts and it's all about how sex-starved women become hysterical

• The ancient papyrus refers to a medical condition known as 'hysterical apnea' 
• The term hysteria itself stems from the Greek word hysterika, meaning 'uterus' 
• Apnea refers to a cessation of air flow into the lungs
• The 'sensational' document was most likely written by Roman physician Galen

An 2,000-year-old scroll has finally been decoded – and revealed baffling centuries-old beliefs about what happens when women do not have enough sex.

The ancient papyrus refers to a medical condition known as 'hysterical apnea', which describes how sex-starved women become hysterical.

Female hysteria was once a common diagnosis, with texts referring to the condition dating as far back as 1900 BC in ancient Egypt.

Hippocrates, widely-credited as the founder of western medicine, also believed in the diagnosis during the 5th century BC.

Experts claim the 'sensational' 2,000-year-old papyrus was most likely a medical document written by the famous Roman physician Galen, who was the first to understand the importance of the pulse and flow of blood around the body. 

'Hysterical apnea' is no longer recognised by medical authorities. 

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An 2,000-year-old scroll has finally been decoded - and it contains bizarre information about what happens when women do not have enough sex

Since the 18th century, the mysterious papyrus has been kept in Basel, Switzerland. 

With writing appearing backwards on both sides, as if written in a mirror, the document has puzzled generations of researchers.

However, new research from the University of Basel has now discovered it is a medical document from late antiquity.

The papyrus was decoded after ultraviolet and infrared images taken by researchers revealed it was not a single sheet, but several layers of papyrus glued together.

'This is a sensational discovery,' said Sabine Huebner, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel.

'The majority of papyri are documents such as letters, contracts and receipts. This is a literary text, however, and they are vastly more valuable. 

'We can now say that it's a medical text from late antiquity that describes the phenomenon of "hysterical apnea",' said Dr Huebner.

The term hysteria itself stems from the Greek word 'hysterika', meaning uterus.

Apnea refers to a cessation of air flow into the lungs.

It was believed the uterus could become too dry from a lack of sexual intercourse. This caused the organ to travel around the abdomen seeking moisture.

At the time, it was believed that if the organ came into contact with the liver it would cause sudden suffocation, known as 'hysterical apnea'.

The Greeks described the condition as 'Wandering Womb'. 

Galen believed women suffering from 'hysterical apnea' should repress stimuli likely to 'excite' them and take various herbs. Marriage was also considered a cure.

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Experts revealed this 'sensational' document (pictured) was most likely a medical document written by the famous Roman physician Galen

HOW WERE WOMEN DIAGNOSED WITH 'HYSTERIA' FOR CENTURIES?

The term hysteria itself stems from the Greek word hysterika, meaning Uterus.

Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis, reserved exclusively for women, that is no longer recognised by medical authorities.

Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years. 

Women suspected to have had it exhibited a wide array of symptoms, including sexual desire, insomnia or even a 'tendency to cause trouble'.

In some extreme cases, woman were forced to enter asylums or undergo a surgical hysterectomy.

In ancient Greece, hysteria was described in the gynaecological treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus, which dates back to the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

Plato's dialogue Timaeus compares a woman's uterus to a living creature that wanders throughout a woman's body, 'blocking passages, obstructing breathing, and causing disease'.

The ancient Greeks used the term Wandering Womb - the belief that a displaced uterus was the cause of many medical pathologies in women. These sort of beliefs were widely held for centuries. 

In ancient Greece, hysteria was described in the gynecological treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus, which dates back to the 5th and 4th centuries BC.  

Timaeus, a dialogue written by Plato, compares a woman's uterus to a living creature which wanders throughout a woman's body 'blocking passages, obstructing breathing, and causing disease.'

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Galen (pictured) believed that women suffering from hysteria should take a number of cures, including repressing stimuli likely to 'excite' them and taking various herbs

The 2,000-year-old papyrus penned by Galen was decoded with the help of a specialist papyrus restorer who was brought to Basel to separate the sheets, enabling the Greek document to be decoded for the first time.

The expert saw parallels to the famous Ravenna papyri from the chancery of the Archdiocese of Ravenna.

These include many antique manuscripts from Galen, which were later used as palimpsests and written over.

'We therefore assume that it is either a text from the Roman physician Galen, or an unknown commentary on his work,' said Dr Huebner.

The Basel papyrus could be a similar case of medieval recycling, as it consists of multiple sheets glued together and was probably used as a book binding. 

As papyri frequently only survive in fragments or pieces, exchanges with other papyrus collections are essential.

'The papyri are all part of a larger context. People mentioned in a Basel papyrus text may appear again in other papyri, housed for example in Strasbourg, London, Berlin or other locations', said Dr Huebner.

'It is digital opportunities that enable us to put these mosaic pieces together again to form a larger picture.'