While it may still be considered the early days for AI in healthcare, the new developments have a habit of often seeming fast, furious and coming from all around the globe.

For example,  France-based medical imaging AI specialist Avicenna.AI recently announced that it has received certification in the United States and European Union for CINA CHEST, a new AI solution that leverages deep learning algorithms for emergency triage of deadly vascular conditions.

CINA CHEST is part of Avicenna's CINA family of AI tools that support the treatment of emergencies, including CINA HEAD, its FDA-cleared and CE-Marked solution that supports the detection and triage of stroke and neurovascular emergencies.

The company has also received clearance from the U.S. FDA for its automatic detection and triage capabilities for both pulmonary embolism (PE) and aortic dissection (AD) from CT-scan imaging. PE is the blockage of an artery in the lungs and is one of the major causes of death, morbidity, and hospitalization worldwide, while AD is a tear in the inner layer of the aorta, allowing blood to flow between the layers.

Meanwhile, from the other side of the globe comes the announcement of a new project at the University of Western Australia that is tapping AI to help people suffering from, or at risk of, coronary artery disease, the single leading cause of death in Australia.

According to a university statement, the UWA team of experts in cardiac imaging and artificial intelligence was awarded $896,606 through a Medical Research Future Fund Frontiers grant to develop a tool to predict the risk of coronary heart disease from heart computed tomography (CT) scans.

“Our artificial intelligence-based risk prediction system will be able to define groups based on heart CT scans and will identify patients at risk of heart attack and also those who would most benefit from treatment,” said Professor Girish Dwivedi, the UWA Wesfarmers Chair in Cardiology.

“Preventing, reducing or even delaying the onset of heart attack will drive massive savings in public health budgets.

Coronary artery disease resulting from the build-up of plaque affects more than 1.2 million Australians, but traditional methods using CT imaging of the heart are cumbersome, time-consuming and may have limited accuracy. The new tool, however, could determine if plaque build-up has narrowed the coronary arteries and would identify patients most at risk of adverse cardiovascular events, ultimately reducing the number of heart attacks and deaths.

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