PROTEUS Study: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Stress Echocardiography.

Background: Stress echocardiography (SE) is one of the most commonly used diagnostic imaging tests for coronary artery disease (CAD) but requires clinicians to visually assess scans to identify patients who may benefit from invasive investigation and treatment. EchoGo Pro provides an automated interpretation of SE based on artificial intelligence (AI) image analysis. In reader studies, use of EchoGo Pro when making clinical decisions improves diagnostic accuracy and confidence.

Left ventricular assessment with artificial intelligence increases the diagnostic accuracy of stress echocardiography.

Aims: To evaluate whether left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and global longitudinal strain (GLS), automatically calculated by artificial intelligence (AI), increases the diagnostic performance of stress echocardiography (SE) for coronary artery disease (CAD) detection.

Methods And Results: SEs from 512 participants who underwent a clinically indicated SE (with or without contrast) for the evaluation of CAD from seven hospitals in the UK and US were studied. Visual wall motion scoring (WMS) was performed to identify inducible ischaemia.

Automated Echocardiographic Detection of Severe Coronary Artery Disease Using Artificial Intelligence.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to establish whether an artificially intelligent (AI) system can be developed to automate stress echocardiography analysis and support clinician interpretation.

Background: Coronary artery disease is the leading global cause of mortality and morbidity and stress echocardiography remains one of the most commonly used diagnostic imaging tests.

Methods: An automated image processing pipeline was developed to extract novel geometric and kinematic features from stress echocardiograms collected as part of a large, United Kingdom-based prospective, multicenter, multivendor study.

Real-world performance and accuracy of stress echocardiography: the EVAREST observational multi-centre study.

Aims: Stress echocardiography is widely used to identify obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). High accuracy is reported in expert hands but is dependent on operator training and image quality. The EVAREST study provides UK-wide data to evaluate real-world performance and accuracy of stress echocardiography.

Prenatal and Postnatal Cardiac Development in Offspring of Hypertensive Pregnancies.

Background Pregnancy complications such as preterm birth and fetal growth restriction are associated with altered prenatal and postnatal cardiac development. We studied whether there were changes related specifically to pregnancy hypertension. Methods and Results Left and right ventricular volumes, mass, and function were assessed at birth and 3 months of age by echocardiography in 134 term-born infants.

Variations in Cardiovascular Structure, Function, and Geometry in Midlife Associated With a History of Hypertensive Pregnancy.

Hypertensive pregnancy is associated with increased maternal cardiovascular risk in later life. A range of cardiovascular adaptations after pregnancy have been reported to partly explain this risk. We used multimodality imaging to identify whether, by midlife, any pregnancy-associated phenotypes were still identifiable and to what extent they could be explained by blood pressure.

Neonatal autonomic function after pregnancy complications and early cardiovascular development.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a predictor of later cardiac risk. This study tested whether pregnancy complications that may have long-term offspring cardiac sequelae are associated with differences in HRV at birth, and whether these HRV differences identify abnormal cardiovascular development in the postnatal period.

Methods: Ninety-eight sleeping neonates had 5-min electrocardiogram recordings at birth.

Two-Dimensional Echocardiography Estimates of Fetal Ventricular Mass throughout Gestation.

Background: Two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound quality has improved in recent years. Quantification of cardiac dimensions is important to screen and monitor certain fetal conditions. We assessed the feasibility and reproducibility of fetal ventricular measures using 2D echocardiography, reported normal ranges in our cohort, and compared estimates to other modalities.

Disproportionate cardiac hypertrophy during early postnatal development in infants born preterm.

BackgroundAdults born very preterm have increased cardiac mass and reduced function. We investigated whether a hypertrophic phenomenon occurs in later preterm infants and when this occurs during early development.MethodsCardiac ultrasound was performed on 392 infants (33% preterm at mean gestation 34±2 weeks).

Data-driven shape parameterization for segmentation of the right ventricle from 3D+t echocardiography.

Model-based segmentation facilitates the accurate measurement of geometric properties of anatomy from ultrasound images. Regularization of the model surface is typically necessary due to the presence of noisy and incomplete boundaries. When simple regularizers are insufficient, linear basis shape models have been shown to be effective.