A team of Australian researchers developed an echo AI solution that accurately assesses patients’ aortic stenosis (AS) severity levels, including many patients with severe AS who might go undetected using current methods.
The researchers trained their AI-Decision Support Algorithm (AI-DSA) using the Australian Echo Database, which features more than 1M echo exams from over 630k patients, and includes the patients’ 5-year mortality outcomes.
Using 179k echo exams from the same Australian Echo Database, the researchers found that AI-DSA detected…
- Moderate-to-severe AS in 2,606 patients, who had a 56.2% five-year mortality rate
- Severe AS in 4,622 patients, who had a 67.9% five-year mortality rate
Those mortality rates are far higher than the study’s remaining 171,826 patients (22.9% 5yr rate), giving the individuals that AI-DSA classified with moderate-to-severe or severe AS significantly higher odds of dying within five years (Adjusted odds ratios: 1.82 & 2.80).
AI-DSA also served as a valuable complement to current methods, as 33% of the patients that AI-DSA identified with severe AS would not have been detected using the current echo assessment guidelines. However, severe AS patients who were only flagged by the AI-DSA algorithm had similar 5-year mortality rates as patients who were flagged by both AI-DSA and the current guidelines (64.4% vs. 69.1%).
Takeaway
There’s been a lot of promising echo AI research lately, but most studies have highlighted the technology’s performance in comparison to sonographers. This new study suggests that echo AI might also help identify high-risk AS patients who wouldn’t be detected by sonographers (at least if they are using current methods), potentially steering more patients towards life-saving aortic valve replacement procedures.
