Artificial intelligence could be used to detect heart disease from an eye scan, scientists say

Artificial intelligence could detect early signs of heart disease during routine trips to an optician, a group of researchers has said. A study, led by Leeds University and published in Nature Machine Intelligence Tuesday, found that a new AI system that examined eye scans was about 70% accurate at predicting a heart attack within the next 12 months, according to the researchers. Currently, doctors estimate someone's risk of a heart attack in the next ten years using tools that take into account parameters such as age, gender, smoking history, cholesterol and blood pressure. The use of AI with eye scans could help determine more accurately the risk of someone having a heart attack, allowing heart disease treatment to be started earlier, the study authors said. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.