AI helps predict heart attacks and stroke

Artificial intelligence has been used for the first time to instantly and accurately measure blood flow, in a study led by UCL and Barts Health NHS Trust. The results were found to be able to predict chances of death, heart attack and stroke, and can be used by doctors to help recommend treatments which could improve a patient's blood flow. Heart disease is the leading global cause of death and illness. Reduced blood flow, which is often treatable, is a common symptom of many heart conditions. International guidelines therefore recommend a number of assessments to measure a patient's blood flow, but many are invasive and carry a risk. Non-invasive blood flow assessments are available, including Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) imaging, but up until now, the scan images have been incredibly difficult to analyse in a manner precise enough to deliver a prognosis or recommend treatment. In the largest study of its kind, funded by British Heart Foundation and published in the journal Circulation , researchers took routine CMR scans from more than 1,000 patients attending St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital and used a new automated artificial intelligence technique to analyse the images.