SeaPRwire

Researchers identify possible predictor of early heart disease in the elderly: NHCS

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - Researchers here have found a potential predictor of heart disease among the elderly, after discovering a link between the weakening of skeletal muscle function and heart size. The skeletal muscle is attached to bones around the body and helps with muscle movement. The age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function is known as sarcopenia, and it affects 10 per cent of older healthy adults. While such skeletal muscle degeneration is known, the impact of sarcopenia on the ageing heart had not been identified. This was what the study led by the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) sought to address. The longitudinal study, known as the Cardiac Ageing Study, began in 2014 and involved more than 300 healthy adults between 40 and 80 years old. It aimed to study the characteristics of how the heart ages - in both structure and function - within the local population. Based on detailed scans and various assessments such as skeletal muscle mass measurements and hand grip strength tests, the researchers found significant associations between skeletal muscle mass, function and heart structure. Over 20 per cent of older adults with sarcopenia had a distinct pattern of struc...

JCN Newswire
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Fujitsu and Hokkaido University Develop “Explainable AI” Technology Providing Users with Concrete Steps to Achieve Desired Outcomes

ruth
9 minutes

KAWASAKI, Japan, Feb 4, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and Hokkaido University today announced the development of a new technology based on the principle of "explainable AI" that automatically presents users with steps needed to achieve a desired outcome based on AI results about data, for example, from medical checkups."Explainable AI" represents an area of increasing interest in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. While AI technologies can automatically make decisions from data, "explainable AI" also provides individual reasons for these decisions - this helps avoid the so-called "black box" phenomenon, in which AI reaches conclusions through unclear and potentially problematic means.While certain techniques can also provide hypothetical improvements one could take when an undesirable outcome occurs for individual items, these do not provide any concrete steps to improve.For example, if an AI that makes judgments about the subject's health status determines that a person is unhealthy, the new technology can be applied to first explain the reason for the outcome from health examination data like height, weight, and blood pressure. Then, th...