• The app analyzes facial symmetry and muscle position to detect strokes.
  • Early detection by the app can reduce long-term disability and save lives.
  • The study showed the app's effectiveness using videos of 14 stroke patients and 11 healthy participants.

Paramedics can now use a convenient smartphone application to quickly detect if a patient has suffered a stroke. The app uses artificial intelligence (AI) that recognizes facial symmetry and the position of muscles. It has claimed 82% accuracy and the strokes can be identified in seconds.

The symptoms that may be evident in a person who has probably undergone a stroke include confusion, impaired speech, lack of coordination, and blunted affect. The research team reported the application’s trial results in a study in the Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine journal.

"One of the key parameters that affect 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 author Guilherme Camargo de Oliveira from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia.

Research advancements in healthcare are significant and this breakthrough is particularly noteworthy as it can reduce long-term disability and save lives. According to the researchers, this study used video face stimuli of 14 post-stroke patients and 11 healthy participants.

"Studies indicate that nearly 13 percent of strokes are missed in emergency departments and at community hospitals, while 65 percent of patients without a documented neurological examination experience an undiagnosed stroke," said corresponding author Dinesh Kumar, a professor at RMIT.

Kumar mentioned that smaller regional centers might see even higher rates of undetected strokes. Since many strokes occur at home and first responders often work in challenging conditions, there's a clear need for easy-to-use, real-time diagnostic tools. This tool doesn't replace full clinical exams but helps quickly identify patients who need urgent care.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah