{"id":520156,"date":"2026-03-07T10:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:11:08","slug":"new-ai-model-uses-retinal-images-to-help-predict-ph-risk-in-infants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520156\/","title":{"rendered":"New AI model uses retinal images to help predict PH risk in infants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence-powered model that may help identify premature infants at risk for pulmonary hypertension<\/a> (PH) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) using noninvasive eye pictures taken during standard screenings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that information about a baby\u2019s lung and heart health may already be present in these images routinely collected in neonatal care. Earlier detection could make a meaningful difference in outcomes and treatment planning,\u201d Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado Anschutz, and the study\u2019s senior author, said in a university press release.<\/a><\/p>\n

The study, \u201cDeep Learning\u2013Based Prediction of Cardiopulmonary Disease in Retinal Images of Premature Infants<\/a>,\u201d was published in the journal\u00a0JAMA Ophthalmology.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

PH can be complication of BPD and increase risk of serious disease<\/p>\n

BPD is the most frequent chronic lung disease in premature infants. It causes injury to the airways (bronchi) and interferes with the development of the tiny air sacs in the lungs. PH can be a complication of BPD and increases the risk of serious disease.<\/p>\n

Diagnosing<\/a> BPD and PH early in preterm babies can be challenging, since BPD prediction tools and PH diagnosis rely on tests and techniques that may not be sensitive enough or may be resource- and time-intensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cObtaining alternative biomarkers correlated with earlier stages of BPD and PH through noninvasive techniques could avoid the need for more invasive testing and potentially help neonatologists \u2026 enabling more individually tailored care,\u201d the investigators wrote.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, the researchers developed an AI-powered model to analyze retinal images taken during routine screenings for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP affects the retina \u2014 the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye \u2014 in premature babies.<\/p>\n

A total of 493 premature infants were included in the analysis, which used retinal images collected between June 2015 and April 2020 as part of the Imaging and Informatics in Retinopathy of Prematurity (i-ROP) study across the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the challenges with realizing the potential of many oculomics algorithms is that imaging the back of the eye is not (yet) part of the normal care pathway for many populations of patients,\u201d said Peter Campbell, MD, professor of ophthalmology at Oregon Health and Science University and a study co-author. \u201cFor more and more NICUs [neonatal intensive care units], imaging IS part of the care pathway for ROP, which means the barriers to implement technologies like this are significantly lower.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Combined model performed better<\/p>\n

The images were taken at 34 weeks or less of postmenstrual age (the time from the first day of the mother\u2019s last menstrual period), so they were captured before BPD and PH are typically diagnosed.<\/p>\n

To assess whether eye photos could signal emerging lung and heart problems, the researchers trained an AI model using three approaches: retinal imaging alone, demographic and clinical risk factors alone, and a combined model integrating both.<\/p>\n

In the study, BPD was defined as a baby needing supplemental oxygen at 36 weeks of postmenstrual age, while PH was defined based on an echocardiogram<\/a> at 34 weeks\u2019 postmenstrual age and certain pulmonary artery pressure criteria.<\/p>\n

The team then tested how well the AI model could predict which infants would meet those criteria using a standard measure called the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). AUC values range from 0 to 1, with 0.5 indicating random chance and higher values indicating better performance at distinguishing between babies with the condition and those without it.<\/p>\n

Retinal images obtained during ROP screening may be used to predict the diagnosis of BPD and PH in preterm infants, which may lead to earlier diagnosis and avoid the need for invasive diagnostic testing in the future.<\/p>\n

Overall, the combined model performed better. For PH, the combined model achieved an AUC of 0.91, the same as imaging only, but better than 0.68 for demographic risk factors alone.<\/p>\n

For BPD, the combined model reached an AUC of 0.82, compared with 0.72 for both demographics-only and imaging-only models.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the results held up when the researchers removed images showing signs of ROP, suggesting the model wasn\u2019t simply \u201creading\u201d eye disease severity.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtificial intelligence allows us to detect subtle patterns in retinal images that are not visible to the human eye,\u201d said Praveer Singh, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado Anschutz and the study\u2019s lead author.\u00a0\u201cThis opens the possibility of using a simple photograph to gain insights into a premature infant\u2019s overall health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers stressed the model\u2019s potential in aiding diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, these findings suggest that \u201cretinal images obtained during ROP screening may be used to predict the diagnosis of BPD and PH in preterm infants, which may lead to earlier diagnosis and avoid the need for invasive diagnostic testing in the future,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence-powered model that may help identify premature infants at risk for pulmonary hypertension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-520156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}