London – Artificial Intelligence (AI) is remodeling routine heart health checks with the aid of turning a commonplace take a look at right into an effective screening device for structural coronary heart sicknesses, in step with a study posted in Nature.

The AI device, called EchoNext, analyzes popular electrocardiogram (ECG) consequences to flag patients who have to go through echocardiography – an extra distinct and high priced ultrasound check used to locate conditions such as valve ailment and heart muscle thickening.

Historically, ECGs have no longer been used to pick out structural heart sickness. but lead researcher Dr. Pierre Elias from Columbia college says that combining AI with ECG “has the potential to create a completely new screening paradigm.

“In a contrast examination, EchoNext outperformed skilled cardiologists. At the same time as thirteen cardiologists reviewed 3,2 hundred ECGs with 64% accuracy, EchoNext reached 77%. When the device analyzed beyond ECGs from almost 85,000 sufferers, it correctly flagged 3,400 excessive-risk patients who had been no longer previously referred for in addition to checking out – probably lacking early diagnoses.

“In the usage of our era, we may additionally turn the 400 million ECGs done globally each year into four hundred million possibilities to locate and deal with structural heart disease early,” stated Elias.

Structural heart conditions affect around 139 million humans worldwide and cost the U.S. healthcare machine over $100 billion yearly.

Sources https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12099515/

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250721/AI-powered-ECG-model-outperforms-doctors-in-detecting-hidden-heart-disease.aspx