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AI tracks a beating heart’s function over time

Clinicians use ultrasound videos of heartbeats to assess subtle changes in the heart’s pumping function. A method that uses artificial intelligence might simplify these complex assessments when heartbeats are out of rhythm.
  1. Partho P. Sengupta

    1. Partho P. Sengupta is in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, West Virginia University Heart and Vascular Institute, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505, USA.

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  2. Donald A. Adjeroh

    1. Donald A. Adjeroh is in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA.

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The heart is a specialized muscle that contracts rhythmically around its closed chambers to propel blood. However, this pumping function fluctuates throughout the day as the circulating blood flow adapts to the body’s ever-changing metabolic demands1. Understanding the variations in cardiac pump activity with each heartbeat might have relevance for explaining the intricacies of heart function in health and disease. However, the tools for scrutinizing such changes remain imprecise. Writing in Nature, Ouyang et al.2 report the development of a computational platform that uses an artificial-intelligence (AI) approach to assess cardiac ultrasound video and to provide continuous, beat-by-beat measurement of cardiac pump function.

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Nature 580, 192-194 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00819-6

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Competing Interests

P.P.S. is an adviser for HeartSciences, Ultromics and Kencor Health, and has received research grants and support from HeartSciences, Hitachi Aloka, EchoSense and TomTec.

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