AI trained to identify valvular heart disease

The development from Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan, is claimed to identify valvular heart disease with unprecedented accuracy. The results have been published in The Lancet Digital Health.

Valvular heart disease is a cause of heart failure that is often diagnosed using echocardiography. This technique requires specialised skills and there is a corresponding shortage of qualified technicians.

Chest radiography is one of the most common tests to identify diseases, primarily of the lungs. The heart is also visible in chest radiographs little was known about the ability of chest radiographs to detect cardiac function or disease until now.

Chest radiographs (chest X-Rays), are performed in many hospitals and very little time is required to conduct them, making them highly accessible and reproducible. The research team led by Dr. Daiju Ueda, from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Graduate School of Medicine, calculated that if cardiac function and disease could be determined from chest radiographs, this test could serve as a supplement to echocardiography.