Camera Phones An Important Aid To Medical Diagnoses
The small cameras installed in most mobile phone handsets are being praised by doctors in Norway as a useful tool for medical diagnoses, AFP reported.
Obstetricians at St. Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim report how a 25-year-old pregnant woman used her camera phone to provide pictures that lead to the diagnosis of a rare but excruciating disorder.
The report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) said the woman told the doctors that an agonizing pain would shoot through her breasts whenever her fingers, toes or nipples got cold, such as when walking barefoot on a cold floor or taking a shower.
She said the excruciating pain normally lasted between five and 15 minutes and was so extreme that it often brought her to tears.
The woman also told doctors that as the pain intensified, the color of the nipples changed to white and then to blue, and finally to red when the pain subsided and was replaced by numbness.
She showed doctors three photographs from her camera phone documenting the color changes whenever she experienced it happening.
The doctors were able to diagnose a condition called Raynaud’s phenomenon of the nipple, by using the pictures she provided.
The patient’s symptoms completely disappeared within a week after treatment.
The case report says that ordinary camera phones deliver high-quality photographs, which can help doctors make uncommon diagnoses in certain cases.
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