Australian researchers have unveiled a significant advance in the battle against heart disease, creating an artificial intelligence system that can identify the condition years before it may lead to a heart attack.
The new technology works by examining bone density scans and picking up early indicators of cardiovascular disease. In one case, Philippa Lukeis believed she was in excellent health until the AI flagged calcium on a major blood vessel during a routine scan.
“Which really surprised me because I didn’t have any symptoms or anything,” she said.
The finding pointed to abdominal aortic calcification, a condition considered an early warning sign of heart disease. For the 71-year-old grandmother, the result became an important turning point.
“It was good because it was the catalyst to actually look at my lifestyle,” Lukeis said.
The AI system is able to review hundreds of scans in seconds, detecting the condition long before a patient reaches the point of serious cardiac risk.
“What we showed there was a one in five of these middle-aged older people had moderate to high levels of disease, and there were two to three times more likely to go on to have a heart attack or stroke in the next five years,” Edith Cowan University Professor Joshua Lewis told 7NEWS.
Funded by the Heart Foundation, the research drew on tens of thousands of bone density scans already stored in medical databases. That means the approach is not only rapid, but also low-cost, because it uses equipment that is already operating across Australia and around the world.
“It will ultimately allow us to detect the heart disease and intervene at a much earlier stage, and save lives, keeping more families together for longer,” Heart Foundation’s Dr Helena Viola said.
The research team hopes the technology could be available to millions of Australians within the next few years.
