Cutting-edge artificial intelligence has been discovered to have the capability of predicting the likelihood of a person suffering a heart attack up to a decade in advance, according to a groundbreaking study.
Researchers at the esteemed University of Oxford believe that this innovative technology has the potential to save countless lives and enhance treatment for nearly 50% of patients.
Funded by the prestigious British Heart Foundation (BHF), the study examined the ways in which AI could significantly improve the precision of cardiac CT scans, commonly used for identifying blockages or arterial narrowings.
Prof Charalambos Antoniades, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the BHF and director of the acute multidisciplinary imaging and interventional centre at Oxford, remarked: “Our study has unveiled that certain patients who arrive at the hospital complaining of chest pain, and are often sent home after being reassured, are at a high risk of experiencing a heart attack within the next ten years, even in the absence of any detectable heart artery disease.”
“Our findings show that providing clinicians with an accurate assessment of risk can potentially alter and improve the treatment paths for a significant number of heart patients.”
In the UK, approximately 350,000 individuals undergo a CT scan annually. However, the BHF reports that many patients ultimately succumb to heart attacks due to undetected, minor narrowings.
The study involved the analysis of data from over 40,000 patients who underwent routine cardiac CT scans at eight hospitals in the UK, with a median follow-up period of 2.7 years.
Afterwards, the AI tool was tested on an additional 3,393 patients over nearly eight years, successfully predicting their risk of suffering a heart attack. Subsequently, AI-generated risk scores were presented to medical professionals for 744 patients, leading to 45% of them having their treatment plans adjusted.
Antoniades emphasized: “We are hopeful that this AI tool will soon be integrated into the NHS, helping to prevent thousands of avoidable heart attack-related deaths in the UK each year.”
The study revealed that patients with “significant” artery narrowings were more likely to experience a severe heart attack. However, twice as many patients with no substantial narrowings also went on to suffer heart attacks, some of which turned out to be fatal.
Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the BHF, hailed the research as demonstrative of the valuable role that AI-based technology can play in identifying those most at risk of future heart attacks.
