Mumbai: While most Indian patients rarely see a cardiologist until they suffer from chest pain, artificial intelligence (AI)-based programs can detect problems long before symptoms.This is why urban hospitals adopt AI for cardiac care. Two hospitals upgraded their cardiac suites with an AI program, but on Saturday Jaslok Hospital of Pedder Road said its cardiologist can assess a patient's cardiovascular risk in seconds in an outpatient setting.“Our main goal is not only treatment but prevention. Based on the cardiac profile, AI programs predict heart disease in patients,” says Dr. Ajit Desai of the hospital. The third death in India was due to heart disease, highlighting the urgency of preventive cardiac care. Experts told TOI that AI can play a role in detecting heart disease early enough for the drug to work. Dr. Ajay Mahajan, Head of Heart Disease at Kem Hospital, said, “AI can convert almost every aspect of cardiac care, such as automatically flagging abnormal rhythms in ECG, quantifying ventricular function, identifying valve lesions with echo scans, etc.” He added that AI-guided optical coherence tomography (OCT) during angioplasty can measure vessel diameter, detect calcium, ensure optimal stent positioning, and diagnose stent failure.“The algorithms built into modern angiography suite allow clinicians to generate live 3D reconstructions of coronary vessels. In short, he said, “AI is an absolute part of the future of medicine.” TNN
