Heart failure affects about 2% to 3% of the world’s population — including up to 9% of people over the age of 60 — and about 6.5 million Americans. For people with this chronic progressive disease, the heart’s inability to pump blood well enough to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen can have dire consequences.About half of people diagnosed with heart failure die within five years Worse than death rate from common cancers Such as bladder cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer.
Early detection and treatment can greatly improve patient outcomes. But usually people don’t have obvious symptoms, such as swollen ankles and shortness of breath, until the condition worsens. Research has shown that this is where artificial intelligence and smartwatches can help.
Earlier this month, researchers Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota present preliminary findings Demonstrated at Heart Rhythm Society conference how artificial intelligence and data can Apple Watch Can be used to detect heart failure.Specifically, they showed How artificial intelligence can be used to interpret electrocardiograms or electrocardiograms — which measure the electrical activity of the heart — taken by the Apple Watch to detect so-called left ventricular dysfunction or a weak heart pump (a stage of heart failure that often has no symptoms present).
If left ventricular dysfunction is detected early, before symptoms appear, clinicians can intervene to significantly improve patient outcomes, said Dr. Paul Friedman, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
“There are many treatments that have been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of death,” Friedman said.
Especially when doctors are able to intervene early, he said, heart failure treatment, from medications to devices such as pacemakers, has been shown to reduce mortality, reduce the risk of hospitalization and reduce a person’s risk of developing symptoms.
A total of 2,454 people from 46 states and 11 countries participated in Mayo Clinic research and downloaded research apps developed by academic medical centers. The app sends electrocardiograms recorded by the smartwatch to clinicians for review, many of which are analyzed by artificial intelligence for research purposes. In total, the researchers were able to collect more than 125,000 ECGs in this way over five months, said Zachi Attia, chief AI scientist at Mayo Clinic and co-director of artificial intelligence in the Cardiovascular Medicine Division.
About 420 patients also had ECG monitoring, which was recorded within 30 days of receiving an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart traditionally used to diagnose heart failure. This gives the researchers another way to test the algorithm’s accuracy; while the data is preliminary, using the algorithm to interpret the Apple Watch ECG appears to be as good or better than the treadmill stress test used to detect heart failure, Attia said .
The latest findings by Mayo Clinic researchers still need to be repeated to confirm the results.But these findings appear to be based on Mayo’s early research Discover how artificial intelligence can be used to Interpreting the ECG in a clinical setting to detect heart failure.
A standard ECG, performed in a doctor’s office, uses 12 lead wires placed on a patient’s chest, arms and legs to create what’s called a trace, which is used to assess the heart’s electrical signals. To interpret the ECG signal produced by a single lead on the Apple Watch, Mayo Clinic researchers modified an established 12-lead algorithm to detect weaknesses in the heart’s pump.The algorithm is licensed Anumanaan artificial intelligence-driven health tech company founded by reasoning, Developing Software Solutions, Mayo Clinic. It requires FDA approval for use in routine clinical practice.
Awaiting approval, David McMullin, Anumana’s chief commercial officer said it has no direct competitors.
but other companies like Cardiology Artificial intelligence is being used to improve the diagnosis of heart disease. Cardiologs, for example, uses AI to detect atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder that increases a person’s risk of heart failure.
Currently, echocardiography is still traditionally used to diagnose heart failure. But it’s done in far fewer patients than an EKG, and it’s not cheap.An echocardiogram can cost approximately $1,500, Attia says, and $100 to buy an EKG at a doctor’s office — or an EKG on the Apple Watch is worthless (aside from the cost of the watch itself and paying for the data plan). So having an algorithm that can detect heart failure using an electrocardiogram without having to rely on an echocardiogram itself is a breakthrough, Attia said.
He sees great promise in using artificial intelligence and consumer technology to reach more patients whose heart failure might otherwise be detected very late in the disease process, when the prognosis is poor. Friedman also believes that enabling people to get help in the comfort of their home through wearables could help reduce disparities in care. In this case, it means more people can be diagnosed with potentially life-threatening conditions earlier and be able to do something about it, he said.
Photo: metamorworks, Getty Images
