Retinal AI Predicts Neonatal Lung Disease

Retinal scans already performed in the NICU could flag infants at risk for serious lung disease before standard diagnosis

By
mdspire news news staff
February 17, 2026
4 min

MDSpire News

Objective:

To evaluate whether retinal images can predict bronchopulmonary dysplasia and pulmonary hypertension in premature infants.

Approach:

Key Findings:

The multimodal model for bronchopulmonary dysplasia achieved an AUC of 0.82, outperforming demographics-only and imaging-only models (both 0.72).
For pulmonary hypertension, the imaging-only model achieved an AUC of 0.91, while the demographics-only model was 0.68.
The multimodal model for pulmonary hypertension also achieved an AUC of 0.91, indicating no significant improvement from adding demographics.

Interpretation:

Retinal imaging may provide valuable predictive insights for severe cardiopulmonary conditions in premature infants, potentially allowing for earlier interventions.

Limitations:

Small cohort size for pulmonary hypertension analysis.
Lack of external validation across different imaging devices.
Absence of model explainability analyses.

Conclusion:

This study suggests that retinal imaging, already part of routine care, could help identify infants at high risk for severe cardiopulmonary complications, warranting further research.