AI model can now ‘accurately’ detect serious heart disease: ‘Easy and cost-effective’

The AI model will help “clinicians to accurately identify” coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMVD), which is hard to diagnose during ER visits.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have trained an AI model to diagnose heart disease, according to Medical Xpress. Doctors believe this advancement will help them efficiently detect coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMVD), which affects the tinier vessels, in patients.

Detecting coronary microvascular dysfunction requires advanced imaging techniques.(Pexels)

AI model for the diagnosis of heart disease

CMVD diagnosis requires advanced imaging techniques. Although around 14 million people visit a clinic each year for chest pain, CMVD cases often go undetected. Venkatesh L. Murthy, a cardiology professor, told Medical Xpress that the AI model will help “clinicians to accurately identify” CMVD, which is “notoriously hard to diagnose and often missed in emergency department visits”.

CMVD, which affects the tinier vessels, causes chest pain and increases heart attack risks. Advanced and expensive methods like PET myocardial perfusion imaging are generally performed for CMVD diagnosis.

How AI detects CMVD

Venkatesh L. Murthy says researchers have taught the AI model “to understand the electrical language of the heart without human supervision”. After the basic training was over, the model was taught to process advanced PET data with 12 different demographic and clinical prediction tasks.

According to the researchers, the AI model has shown consistent improvement in its diagnostic accuracy in prediction tasks.

The EKG-AI model is cost-effective

Sascha N. Goonewardena, associate professor of internal medicine-cardiology at U-M Medical School, explained to Medical Xpress that the problem is that an angiogram is often unable to detect CMVD. “People who come to the ER for chest pain might have CMVD, but their angiogram will show up as ‘clear,’” he complained.

He believed that the EKG-AI model would make things more convenient and effective. Goonewardena said hospitals with limited resources or non-speciality centers would greatly benefit from the EKG-AI model to predict myocardial flow reserve and CMVD. It would be an “easy, cost-effective and noninvasive way”, he assured.

About coronary microvascular disease (CMVD)

Tiny blood arteries that supply heart tissue are impacted by coronary microvascular disease. Damage to these tiny blood vessels can cause them to spasm, which reduces the amount of blood that reaches your heart. Microvascular coronary disease might increase your chance of having a heart attack and cause persistent chest pain, as per the Cleveland Clinic.

The main symptom is angina, a kind of chest pain that persists for at least ten minutes.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.