Oxford unveils AI that can predict heart attacks 10 years in advance

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With the explosion of AI, it continues to push the boundaries of medicine and pharmaceutical research ever further. Diagnostic support, therapeutic decision support, development of new drugs or personalized therapies, etc. This time, it is researchers from the prestigious University of Oxford who have delivered a true miracle: a cardiac scanning system based on the’ #8217;AI to detect the risk of heart attacks years before they manifest.

Unparalleled precision

Each year, we see practitioners in the United Kingdom flock more than 300& nbsp;000 people, who complain of chest pain. Most of them are then forced to undergo tests to detect possible cardiac abnormalities.

However, these tests only too rarely reveal cardiac obstructions, since less than one in five patients actually have this type of lesion. The vast majority of patients are therefore sent home, with the false assurance that the heart is healthy. A doctor interviewed by The Guardian told the newspaper that around 80% of patients return home with the false impression that they are safe.

It is in this context that Oxford researchers have designed a most innovative technology, which aims to fill these diagnostic gaps by analyzing the damage caused by inflammation of the arteries, lesions often obscured by traditional examinations.

This AI system thus offers a much more precise vision precise and reliable information on the risks incurred by patients suffering from cardiac pathologies. According to its designers, this new approach would save thousands of lives each year. Also, NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and the NHS (National Health Service) should decide on this innovation by the end of the current year. In support of these statements, recent studies demonstrate that after consulting the data provided by this artificial intelligence, doctors adjusted their therapeutic care in nearly 45% of cases.

This discovery, more than promising, suffers from the same pitfalls as all AI systems: their propensity to “hallucinate”. The risk of misinterpretation of the data exists and would obviously not have the same consequences as a certain ChatGPT which would provide erroneous information. However, the first results still remain very encouraging and it will be necessary to integrate fairly robust controls to make the system completely reliable.

• AI system developed by Oxford researchers can predict heart attacks years in advance by analyzing inflammation of the arteries.
• This could save thousands of lives, preliminary tests having shown therapeutic adjustments in nearly 45% of cases after its use.
• To guarantee the reliability of diagnostics, it will nevertheless be necessary to put in place security controls.

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