AI may help detect heart failure risk early: Study

Researchers have found a way to apply artificial intelligence (AI) for earlier diagnosis and treatment for people at risk of heart failure.

Scientists, including those at The Queen Mary University of London, applied AI to analyse the heart MRI images of 17,000 healthy UK Biobank volunteers.

They found that the genes of a person influence 22-39 per cent of variation in the size and function of the heart's left ventricle -- the organ's main pumping chamber, whose enlargement and reduced pumping function can lead to heart failure.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, identified 14 regions in the human genome that are associated with the size and function of the left ventricle -- each containing genes that regulate the early development of heart chambers and the contraction of heart muscle.

"It is exciting that the state-of-the-art AI techniques now allow rapid and accurate measurement of the tens of thousands of heart MRI images required for genetic studies," said lead ...