Researchers at Imperial College London built a tool that reads routine heart traces. It flags signs of heart failure and heart valve disease in under two seconds. Standard heart traces record electrical activity but cannot detect these conditions. Diagnosis normally needs an ultrasound scan, and patients often wait months. The team tested the tool on tens of thousands of patients in the United States. It cannot confirm or rule out either condition on its own. Doctors would still send flagged patients for a scan, but faster. Researchers suggest running it on all hospital traces to catch unsuspected cases. The next step is a handheld reader for clinicians. The British Heart Foundation funded the trial.
What changed
Standard ECGs cannot detect heart failure or valve disease; patients wait months for an ultrasound scan.
What it unlocks
Flagging patients most likely to have heart failure or valve disease from an ECG, so they can be sent for a scan sooner.
- 81% of heart failure cases identified
- 90% of valve disease cases identified
- 67,000 patients in US trial
- under 2 seconds per reading
What you need to act on it
- routine ECG data
- a confirmatory echocardiogram before diagnosis
Sources