AI improving early detection, prevention in cardiac patients
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This is the reason why city hospitals are adopting AI in cardiac care. Two hospitals have upgraded their cardiac suite with an AI programme, while Jaslok Hospital on Pedder Road on Saturday said its cardiologists could, in outpatient settings, assess the cardiovascular risk of a patient in a few seconds.
"Our main goal is prevention, not just treatment. Based on a cardiac profile, the AI programme will predict heart diseases in patients," said senior cardiologist Dr Ajit Desai from the hospital.
Every third death in India is due to heart disease, underlining the urgency for preventive cardiac care. Experts told TOI that AI could play a role in detecting heart disease early enough for medicines to work. Dr Ajay Mahajan, head of cardiology at KEM Hospital, said, "AI can transform nearly every aspect of cardiac care—such as automatically flagging abnormal rhythms on ECGs or quantifying ventricular function and pinpointing valve lesions on an Echo scan.
" He added that AI-guided optical coherence tomography (OCT) during angioplasty can measure vessel diameter, detect calcium, ensure optimal stent positioning and diagnose stent failures.
Interventional cardiologist Dr Ananth Rao said, "With algorithms built into modern angiography suites, clinicians can now generate live 3D reconstructions of coronary vessels—pinpointing calcium deposits, soft plaques or clots—before they start the procedure." In short, he said, "AI is an absolute part of the future of medicine." tnn
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