Oxford team’s technology picked up danger signs with 86% accuracy in study of 72,000 patients in England
Oxford scientists have developed a simple AI tool that can predict the risk of heart failure five years before it develops.
More than 60 million people worldwide have the condition in which the heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it should. Spotting cases before they develop into heart failure would be a big step forward, experts say. Doctors could prepare better for and manage the condition at an earlier stage or even prevent it entirely.
The AI tool, developed by a team at the University of Oxford, looks for signs in fat around the heart that indicate whether it is inflamed and unhealthy. The signs are not visible to the human eye.
Until now, there had not been a way to accurately predict heart failure using routine cardiac CT scans, the researchers said. The tool provides doctors with a patient’s risk score that could help them make decisions about care such as how closely patients should be monitored.
