AI plus CT calculates cardiothoracic ratio for high risk patients

CHICAGO -- A fully automated AI algorithm designed to opportunistically screen for enlarged heart, or cardiomegaly, on routine chest and abdominal CT exams was highly predictive of future cardiovascular events, according to research presented November 26 at RSNA 2023.Presenter Steven Rothenberg, MD, of the University of Alabama in Birmingham, said calculating the cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) was most useful for opportunistic screening of cardiomegaly on cross-sectional imaging.“We hypothesized that a suite of fully automated algorithms that quantifies the cardiothoracic ratio would predict future cardiovascular events,” Rothenberg explained. “The reason why this is important is because early detection of cardiomegaly would allow for appropriate management to reduce cardiovascular events. And cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of mortality in the U.S.”Cardiomegaly is pathologic enlargement of the heart that can be caused by chronic conditions. Having cardiomegaly predisposes a person to major cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, arrhythmia, or death. For this study, Rothenberg's group trained the AI algorithm to segment the heart, determine the key slice for where the heart is largest, and then extract the cardiothoracic ratio from 2D segmentation. A normal heart was defined as having a linear cardiothoracic ratio of less than 0.5, while mild cardiomegaly was defined as a ratio of 0.5 to 0.56, and severe cardiomegaly as ...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: CT Cardiovascular Radiology Cardiac Imaging 2023 Source Type: news