Breast cancer screening may soon serve a dual, life-saving purpose. A medical team from Israel has discovered a way to utilize routine mammograms to simultaneously detect cardiovascular diseases—the leading cause of death for women globally, which often remains undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
AI Precision in Diagnostics
Researchers analyzed 97,364 mammograms from 29,921 women with an average age of 54. Using a machine learning model, they successfully identified women who had suffered a stroke with 86% reliability. For high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, the model's reliability reached 79% and 78%, respectively.
These findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology's annual congress in Munich, are particularly significant because the analysis relies solely on existing mammography imaging, requiring no additional tests or procedures.
Addressing the Underdiagnosis Gap
According to Dr. Viana Copeland of Tel Aviv University, cardiovascular diseases in women are frequently identified only after the condition has advanced. "Because mammography is already widely used, analyzing breast images for information about a woman's cardiovascular health could potentially offer a solution that can be implemented on a large scale," she noted.
- 16% of the women in the study had high blood pressure.
- 2.5% had coronary artery disease and 2.5% had suffered a stroke.
- Accuracy remained consistent regardless of age or the presence of cancer.
Despite the encouraging results, experts emphasize that the method is still in the refinement stage. The current challenge is to move from experimentation to clinical practice, ensuring the method's reliability in real-world medical settings.
