A new study found that a non-invasive, AI enabled Coronary Computer Tomography Angiography effectively identified stenosis equally well or better than the conventional gold standard of Echo Cardiogram and other more invasive methods for detecting heart disease.
Cleerly, a New York, New York-based company, makes the product that was found to have accurately identified plaque buildup in the coronary artery. Its goal is to create a paradigm where heart disease is caught early and not when patients begin to demonstrate symptoms.
The AI-based evaluation matched or exceeded the capabilities of core lab quantitative coronary angiography (QCA), core lab–interpreted coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA), and invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) for evaluating coronary CTA stenosis severity, according to the study. In addition to its strong efficacy, the AI-enabled technology had the added benefit of a faster turnaround time compared to traditional methods, noted the study.
“Cleerly’s non-invasive platform is highly accurate compared to invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and in greater agreement to invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) than ICA,” said James Min, CEO and founder of Cleerly in an email. “These results establish Cleerly’s technology platform as the most accurate to date for the quantification and characterization of coronary atherosclerosis and vascular morphology.”
He added that given that there are fewer than 3,000 board-certified physician readers capable of interpreting coronary CT angiograms, Cleerly’s technology “now offers a unique opportunity to all health systems and providers for comprehensive analysis of CCTAs in a manner that cannot be done by human interpretation alone.” [Click image to enlarge.]
Cleerly’s technology works by identifying atherosclerosis, the plaque buildup in the arteries of the heart. It then completes a comprehensive assessment, covering each coronary branch and artery, and finds, characterize, and evaluates plaque buildup. Cleerly hopes its assessment empowers physicians to evaluate a patient’s risk of heart attack.
Many patients who have heart attacks identify as low risk prior to the attack and do not have symptoms prior to the attack, according to Min. In cases where patients do not demonstrate symptoms, atherosclerotic plaques that don’t reduce blood flow in the heart arteries cause the attack. As a result, traditional approaches miss such patients and do not flag them for heart disease. Cleerly hopes its technology will identify these patients, due to its focus on atherosclerosis.
“Cleerly’s approach transcends the current approach from treating late-stage symptoms to evaluation across the entire continuum of heart disease presentation, with an emphasis on evaluation of those patients previously missed by conventional approaches wherein proactively identifying early stages of heart disease when we can prevent its progression more easily,” Min said. “Cleerly’s precision diagnostics approach allows for better capture of patients at risk and, for the first time, enables a personalized pathway to custom-tailoring treatment and disease tracking over time. This approach to precision heart care improves clinical outcomes while yielding significant cost savings.”
Historically, symptoms often drive heart care, according to Min.
“Our historical approaches have emphasized late-stage symptom-driven care, which is analogous to only beginning treatment of cancer patients when metastases have already occurred. Instead, an early proactive paradigm of treating actual heart disease–atherosclerosis–in a personalized fashion can fundamentally shift the care paradigm towards the goal of eradicating heart attacks,” Min said.
The findings of this study are the second in a series of six evaluating Cleerly’s efficacy compared to the
Photo: Narongrit Doungmanee, Getty Images; Graphic: JACC Journals
Read More:Study: AI-enabled coronary CT angiography as good if not better than Echo, other tests to identify heart disease
2022-02-22 23:31:04
