Hyper-Thyro Vision: An Integrated Framework for Hyperthyroidism Diagnostic Facial Image Analysis Based on Deep...

This paper presents an integrated multi-modal framework for detecting hyperthyroidism-associated abnormalities, namely exophthalmos and thyroid-related neck swelling, through the joint analysis of frontal facial and neck images using a deep learning-based approach. The objective of this research is to develop an integrated AI framework that improves hyperthyroid-related abnormality detection by simultaneously analyzing facial images of both the eye and neck based on pattern clinical knowledge. The multi-modal framework mimics a biological visual mechanism by using a dual-pathway architecture that concurrently processes foveal-like details of the eyes and neck. It integrates these high-resolution visual embeddings with quantitative morphological measurements to simulate a clinician's ability to fuse observation with physical assessment. The proposed system employs a multi-faceted decision-making process derived from three distinct data components: two from frontal face analysis and one from neck region analysis. Specifically, eye regions extracted from facial images are preprocessed using the YOLOv11s model. The proposed system leverages a dual-pathway processing architecture to extract comprehensive diagnostic features. For the eye dataset, the framework utilizes a face mesh-based eye landmark (FMEL) to extract both eye regions and perform eyes unfold processing. These regions are subsequently analyzed by the proposed sclera map unwrapping engine (SMUE) to derive quantitative sclera metrics from both the left and right eyes. To optimize classification, a dual-branch architecture is employed by integrating CNN visual embeddings with SMUE-derived statistical features through a feature fusion layer. Simultaneously, the neck processing path executes the neck region of interest (ROI) prediction {upper, lower} to segment critical regions for goiter assessment via the proposed neck μ-σ ensemble thresholding (NSET) algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm for eye analysis achieved a mean average precision (mAP50) of 96.4%, with a specific mAP50 of 98.6% for the hyperthyroid class. Regarding quantitative scleral measurement, the SMUE process revealed distinct morphological differences, with the experimental data group exhibiting consistently higher pixel distances across the reference points compared with the normal group. Furthermore, the proposed NSET algorithm yielded the highest performance for swollen neck classification with an mAP50 of 92.0%, significantly outperforming the baseline deep learning models while maintaining lower computational complexity.