Smartphones could be used to monitor liver disease patients at home

smartphoneTB A smartphone camera was able to detect changes in skin tone and eye colour that require patients to seek medical help, in new research from UCL and the Royal Free Hospital. The study, published in PLOS Digital Health , is the first to assess and compare how smartphone images of the forehead, white of the eye and lower eyelid could be used to accurately predict the bilirubin level of patients with advanced cirrhosis. It found that images of the white of the eye was the best way to predict bilirubin level from an Liver disease is the third most common cause of working-age premature death in the UK. Whilst mortality rates have greatly improved for many chronic diseases, the mortality rate for liver disease in the UK increased by 400% between 1970 and 2010. This has increased the need to find non-invasive, cost-effective ways to monitor cirrhosis progression. Bilirubin is a yellowish pigment that indicates poor liver function when visible in the skin or eye, a condition known as jaundice. Advanced cirrhosis patients' skin and eyes become more yellow as the bilirubin concentration in the blood becomes higher.