Doctors have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) ECG tool to detect heart failure signs and heart valve disease from a routine electrocardiogram (ECG) in less than two seconds, potentially helping hospitals identify high-risk patients sooner.
The technology, trained on millions of patient records, can extract information from an ECG that is not normally visible to the human eye. Details of the research were presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual congress in Munich, the world’s largest heart conference.
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AI ECG Can Spot Heart Disease Faster Than Standard Testing
An ECG records the heart’s electrical activity, including its rate and rhythm, and has been used for about a century to help diagnose heart attacks and abnormal heart rhythms.
But an ECG cannot by itself detect heart failure or heart valve disease. Patients generally need an echocardiogram, an ultrasound scan of the heart, to investigate these conditions. Such scans can involve waiting several months after referral.
The new AI system is designed to read ECG results almost instantly and flag people who may have either condition.
In a trial involving 67,000 patients in the US, the AI identified up to 81% of people with heart failure and up to 90% of those with heart valve disease.
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AI Could Help Fast-Track High-Risk Patients
The tool is not intended to provide a definitive diagnosis or rule out heart disease on its own. Instead, it could act as an early warning system, helping doctors decide which patients should receive an echocardiogram more urgently.
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, consultant cardiologist and clinical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which funded the trial, said the technology could help identify high-risk patients earlier, while stressing that it would not detect everyone with a heart condition.
Prof Fu Siong Ng of Imperial College London said patients can wait months for heart ultrasound scans, making faster identification of those most at risk potentially useful.
The researchers also see another application: running the AI across routine ECGs taken for unrelated reasons to flag previously unsuspected heart disease.
Dr Ahmed El-Medany, who led the Imperial College London analysis, described it as “superhuman AI”. The next step is to develop handheld AI-enabled ECG readers for healthcare professionals.
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AI Moves Beyond Heart Tests
The Munich conference also heard about AI analysing five-second facial videos to detect undiagnosed high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Institute of Science Tokyo said the approach could improve diagnosis of conditions that millions of people may have without knowing it.
The immediate value of AI in healthcare may not be replacing doctors, but helping them decide who needs attention first. With around one billion ECGs performed each year globally, even a screening tool that can flag high-risk cases more quickly could have a sizeable impact on how cardiac care is prioritised.
Samarjit Kaur is a journalist and communications professional covering technology & emerging digital trends. With a focus on clarity and context, she reports on developments shaping industries and governance. When not reporting, she chooses to plug-in and relax on her playlists and plan her next bucket-list trips!
