AI software learns to predict when heart failure may happen
An artificial intelligence (AI) software has learned to analyze blood tests and scans of beating hearts in order to predict when a heart failure may occur, according to a team of scientists at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences.
The researchers investigated patients with pulmonary hypertension.High blood pressure in the lungs damages part of the heart, and about a third of patients die within five years of being diagnosed.
Although there are available treatments such as drugs, injections straight into the blood vessels, a lung transplant, doctors need to have an idea of how long patients might have left in order to pick the right treatment.
The software was given the blood test results and MRI scans of the hearts of 256 patients. It measured the movement of 30,000 different points in the organ’s structure during each heartbeat.
When this data was combined with eight years of patient health records, the artificial intelligence learned which abnormalities predicted when patients would die.
The software could look about five years into the future. It correctly predicted those who would still be alive after one year about 80% of the time. The figure for doctors is 60%.
Dr. Declan O’Regan, one of the researchers, said the AI allows for tailored individual treatment. The results of dozens of different tests including imaging are taken by the software to predict what’s going to happen to individual patients very accurately, he said.
The team now wants to test if the software works in other patients in different hospitals before assessing whether it should be made widely available to doctors.
The researchers also want to use the technology in other forms of heart failure, such as cardiomyopathy, to see who might need a pacemaker or other forms of treatment.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
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