Pharmacy Daily | AI diagnostic tool for heart diagnosis

A NEW AI technology EchoSolv developed in Australia by ASX-listed company EchoIQ is transforming the way severe aortic stenosis (AS) is diagnosed.

A company spokesperson said the misdiagnosis of AS affects up to 50,000 Australians a year.

"Cardiologists typically review 40 to 60 echo-cardiographic measures and images and manually scan for 12-15 common problems and several rare ones.

"The process is prone to human error and bias, resulting in up to 50% of severe conditions not being identified and gender bias sees up to 66% of women not being identified," the spokesperson said.

EchoIQ conducted a study with 9,189 patients at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne and Sydney which shows that of the patients studied, 218 individuals (representing 2.4% of the study group) had been diagnosed, as per routine clinical care, with guideline-defined severe aortic stenosis.

When EchoSolv was applied to the same group of patients, it identified 376 individuals (representing 4.1% of the study group) with guideline-defined AS.

EchoSolv picked up an additional 72% of patients meeting the guidelines for AS, none of whom had been diagnosed with that severity of disease by routine clinical practice (humans alone).

The study also revealed a difference in the way women had been identified and treated.

While the study showed that similar proportions of men and women had guideline-defined AS, it also revealed that women were 66% less likely to have been accurately diagnosed than men, using human-only assessment, and 50% less likely to receive intervention than men which re-enforces the need for unbiased identification of the disease.