New AI model to speed up heart scans, save time, boost treatment

New Delhi: Researchers have developed a very innovative method for analysing MRI heart scans with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) technology which could save valuable time and resources and improve patient care.

The teams from the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Sheffield, and Leeds have created a model that uses AI to examine heart MRI scans in a view known as the four-chamber plane.

"This model determines the size and function of the heart's chambers and demonstrates outcomes comparable to those done by doctors but unimaginably faster," said Pankaj Garg, from the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School

He noted that a standard MRI process takes 45 minutes, but the new model takes "a matter of seconds", leading to an overall betterment of this field.

The retrospective observational study consisted of data from 814 patients. Further, scans and data from another 101 patients were also sampled.

While the previous studies focused on only the two main chambers of the heart, the new study focuses on all four.

The team said this would lead to faster, more accurate diagnoses and help patients.

They also stressed the need for future studies to focus on larger groups of patients from different hospitals, with different types of MRI scanners, and other common diseases seen in medical practice to verify the accuracy.