Cardiovascular disease is still the most common cause of death in Sweden and the world. But conditions have never been better to identify individual risks for, for example, stroke, COPD, sudden cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction and other heart diseases. This is due to several advances.
In addition to AI technology itself becoming more and more advanced, new technology in the health care system makes it possible to take pictures of the heart, lungs and blood vessels in a way not previously possible. It is also possible to image and measure the distribution of fat in the body. In addition, there is now a sufficiently large image bank to use thanks to the population study Scapis. The study comprises 30,000 Swedes and is a collaboration between six universities and six university hospitals. Images and information collected by Scapis are now used in several medical research projects where computers will learn to interpret computed tomographic images of human organs.
“We are currently working with Sahlgrenska to develop an algorithm that can be used for segmentation and classification of three-dimensional computed tomographic images of the coronary arteries”, says Fredrik Kahl.
Jennifer Alvén is also involved in the project. She is a doctoral student in medical image analysis and in the process of developing an algorithm that allows the computer system to read the coronary arteries all by itself.
“It is great that the research is really taking off now”, says Jennifer Alvén. “I am training the computer system through deep learning so that it can recognize the coronary arteries of the heart and the areas where the vessels hold calcium and fat, which could lead to future heart problems.”