Facial temperature for the diagnosis of metabolic diseases

These temperature differences are not easily sensed by touch and must be identified using spatial temperature patterns, which requires a thermal imaging camera and an artificial intelligence (AI) model trained on empirical data.

“Aging is a natural process,” he says. Jing-Dong Jackie Hanlead author of the paper from Peking University. “But our tool could promote healthy aging and help people live disease-free lives.”

Previously, researchers used 3D structure of the face predict a person’s biological age, which indicates the degree of aging of the body. This factor is closely related to the risk of developing chronic diseases.

Scientists were curious to see whether other facial features, such as temperature, could also predict the rate of aging and health.

Thermal clock

Data from this new study, which analyzed the facial temperatures of more than 2,800 participants aged 21 to 88, was used to train machine learning artificial intelligence models that can predict thermal age human.

“Due to the limited number of samples, we do not use deep learning models to predict metabolic diseases. Instead, we use machine learning based on a thermal clock we call ThermoFac, which we developed based on 2,800 scanned faces,” Han explains to SINC.

Researchers have identified several key areas of the face whose temperature is significantly associated with age and health, such as: nose, eyes and cheeks.

The team found that nasal temperature declined faster with age than other parts of the face. youngest thermal ageAt the same time, the temperature around the eyes tends to increase with age.

They also noted that people with metabolic disorders such as diabetes and fatty liver disease suffer thermal aging Faster. These participants showed higher temperatures in area around the eyes than their healthy counterparts of the same age. People with high blood pressure They also had higher cheek temperatures.

Blood sample analysis

Analysis blood samples volunteers also found that the increase in temperature around the eyes and cheeks was mainly due to an increase in cellular activity associated with inflammation, such as DNA repair damage and infection control.

“Deterioration of biological conditions by altering normal cellular function and energy homeostasis can lead to the development or progression of chronic diseases,” the SINC author reports. “The thermal clock is so closely associated with chronic diseases that previous facial imaging models could not predict these conditions.”

Benefits of Exercise

The association between thermal conditions and age-related diseases prompted the authors to investigate whether exercise could influence thermal age.

They asked 23 participants to jump rope at least 800 times a day for two weeks. To the team’s surprise, these people reduced their thermal age by five years in just two weeks of training.

The researchers now want to find out whether thermal facial imaging can be used to predict other conditions, such as sleep disorders or cardiovascular problems.

“We hope to apply facial thermal imaging in clinical settings as it has great potential for early disease diagnosis and early intervention,” concludes Khan.

Link:

Zhengqing Yu et al. Thermal facial image analysis reveals quantitative features of aging and metabolic diseases.. Cellular metabolism (2024)