Researchers from Rutgers Health and RWJBarnabas Health have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that transforms basic electrocardiogram (ECG) readings of electrical activity into sophisticated heart motion signals normally obtained via echocardiogram, potentially improving how heart disease is detected and monitored.
“ECG is very inexpensive,” said senior study author Partho Sengupta, Henry Rutgers Professor and chief of cardiology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the chief of cardiology at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas Health facility. “It’s even present in the Apple Watch, so millions use it constantly. An echocardiogram is about 5 to 10 times more expensive than an ECG because it requires an expert moving an ultrasound device over the patient’s chest for a significant period.”
The patent-pending technology uses generative AI to assess the speed of cardiac tissue during a heartbeat using electrical signals from ECG. Then, it converts the signals to develop a speed waveform that looks exactly like the waves conventionally measured with Doppler ultrasound imaging during echocardiography. These types of signals enable doctors to see how well the heart is pumping and relaxing during a heartbeat. This innovation addresses a critical health care gap: finding a way to detect heart dysfunction early with cheap and widely available tools like ECG and referring the right patients to specialists for more expensive imaging tests. To read the full story.