Chien Ching-Fang, Sung Jia-Li, Wang Chung-Pang, Yen Chen-Wen, Yang Yuan-Han
Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
Biomedicines. 2023 Oct 16;11(10):2802. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11102802.
Several studies have demonstrated accelerated brain aging in Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Previous studies have also reported that facial asymmetry increases with age. Because obtaining facial images is much easier than obtaining brain images, the aim of this work was to investigate whether AD exhibits accelerated aging patterns in facial asymmetry. We developed new facial asymmetry measures to compare Alzheimer's patients with healthy controls. A three-dimensional camera was used to capture facial images, and 68 facial landmarks were identified using an open-source machine-learning algorithm called OpenFace. A standard image registration method was used to align the three-dimensional original and mirrored facial images. This study used the registration error, representing landmark superimposition asymmetry distances, to examine 29 pairs of landmarks to characterize facial asymmetry. After comparing the facial images of 150 patients with AD with those of 150 age- and sex-matched non-demented controls, we found that the asymmetry of 20 landmarks was significantly different in AD than in the controls ( < 0.05). The AD-linked asymmetry was concentrated in the face edge, eyebrows, eyes, nostrils, and mouth. Facial asymmetry evaluation may thus serve as a tool for the detection of AD.
多项研究表明，阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者存在大脑加速老化的现象。此前的研究还报告称，面部不对称会随着年龄的增长而增加。由于获取面部图像比获取脑部图像要容易得多，因此本研究的目的是调查AD患者在面部不对称方面是否呈现加速老化模式。我们开发了新的面部不对称测量方法，以比较阿尔茨海默病患者与健康对照者。使用三维相机捕捉面部图像，并使用一种名为OpenFace的开源机器学习算法识别68个面部标志点。采用标准图像配准方法对三维原始面部图像和镜像面部图像进行对齐。本研究使用表示标志点叠加不对称距离的配准误差，来检查29对标志点，以表征面部不对称。在将150例AD患者的面部图像与150例年龄和性别匹配的非痴呆对照者的面部图像进行比较后，我们发现，20个标志点的不对称性在AD患者中与对照者相比存在显著差异（<0.05）。与AD相关的不对称集中在面部边缘、眉毛、眼睛、鼻孔和嘴巴。因此，面部不对称评估可作为检测AD的一种工具。
