A newly developed deep learning algorithm is able to assess a patient’s possible risk of cardiovascular disease with the same CT scan that is used for lung cancer.
In the United States, heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death, sharing common risk factors such as tobacco use, diet, blood pressure and obesity. A team of engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and clinicians from Massachusetts General Hospital developed an algorithm that helps to assess patients’ risk of cardiovascular disease with a low dose computed tomography scan that is also dually used to screen for lung cancer.
Utilizing lower dose CT scans can lead to lower image quality and higher noise, but Yan and his team used data from more than 30,000 low dose images to create an algorithm that is capable of filtering out these artifacts and noise and extracting the features that are needed for diagnosis. By utilizing a diagnostic tool that screens for cardiovascular disease and also cancer, it can expedite a diagnosis, accelerate the treatment given and improve the overall outcomes for patients.
Read the full article on Imaging Technology News.