AI-guided screening uses electrocardiogram data to detect a hidden risk factor for stroke

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have used artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate patients' electrocardiograms (ECGs) in a targeted strategy to screen for atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm disorder. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots that may travel to the brain and cause a stroke, but it is largely underdiagnosed. In the digitally-enabled, decentralized study, AI identified new cases of atrial fibrillation that would not have come to clinical attention during routine care. Earlier research had already developed an AI algorithm to identify patients with a high likelihood of previously unknown atrial fibrillation. "We believe that atrial fibrillation screening has great potential, but currently the yield is too low and the cost is too high to make widespread screening a reality," says Peter Noseworthy, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study.