Doctors can examine a patient’s heart for scar tissue without contrast injections with new artificial intelligence technology, improving heart imaging.
New artificial intelligence technology for cardiac imaging could allow doctors to examine a patient’s heart for scar tissue while avoiding the need for contrast injections normally required for cardiovascular MRI (CMR), they report their results in the journal Circulation, University of Virginia Health System. Researchers compared the AI approach known as Virtual Native Enhancement (VNE) to contrast-enhanced CMR scanners used to monitor hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The team found that the VNE produced higher quality images and captured better evidence of scar tissue in the heart.
“This is a potentially important advance, especially if it can be expanded to other patient groups,” researcher and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at UVA Health Christopher Kramer, MD, said in a press release.
“Being able to identify scar in the heart, an important contributor to progression to heart failure and sudden cardiac death, without contrast, would be highly significant. CMR scans would be done without contrast, saving cost and any risk, albeit low, from the contrast agent.”
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common genetic heart disease and the cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes. The disease causes muscles to become thicker and stiffer, reducing the heart’s ability to pump blood and requiring close monitoring by healthcare professionals. According to researchers, doctors can image the heart more often and faster with new VNE technology. In addition, the technology will benefit patients who are allergic to the contrast agents used in CMR injection and patients with severe kidney failure who are reluctant to use the agents. The new approach works by using artificial intelligence to improve “T1 maps” of heart tissue produced by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The cards are combined with MRT cines, which in this case are the beating heart. By superimposing the two types of images, the researchers created the artificial VNE image.
The technology can create imaging results virtually identical to the traditional contrast-enhanced CMR heart scans.
“Avoiding the use of contrast and improving image quality in CMR would only help both patients and physicians down the line,” Kramer said.
While current research has explored the potential for VNE in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the inventors of AI envision the technology’s use in many other heart conditions as well.
“While currently validated in the HCM population, there is a clear pathway to extend the technology to a wider range of myocardial pathologies,” the researchers wrote.
“VNE has enormous potential to significantly improve clinical practice, reduce scan time and costs, and expand the reach of CMR in the near future.”
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