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AI Can Detect Heart Disease Risk Through Routine Mammogram
AI analysis of routine mammograms predicts serious cardiovascular risk, with women showing moderate calcification facing over 70% higher risk, researchers say.
- On March 8, 2026, a study published in the European Heart Journal showed AI analyses of routine mammograms can predict women's heart disease risk, based on calcium deposits.
- Amid evidence women are underdiagnosed for heart disease, researchers used mammography programmes to detect breast arterial calcification, aiming to flag risk without extra cost in two major US health systems.
- Data show severity of BAC corresponds to increasing future cardiovascular risk, with mild calcification raising risk by around 30%, moderate by more than 70%, and severe by two-to-threefold in 123,762 women.
- Policymakers could consider integrating the AI tool into existing mammography programmes, potentially reaching tens of millions annually without extra infrastructure, while clinicians may use results to prompt cholesterol testing or medication conversations, including for younger women under 50.
- If validated and implemented, the approach could reframe screening programmes as fewer than 40% of women know their cholesterol levels, and a mammogram could prompt preventive steps like cholesterol testing.
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25 Articles
Routine Mammograms That Also Flag CVD: Two Birds With One Stone?
(MedPage Today) -- With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), routine screening mammograms could identify women at higher cardiovascular risk, a retrospective cohort study suggested. A greater amount of AI-calculated breast arterial calcification...
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AI can detect heart disease risk through routine mammogram
Researchers say AI could help save the disproportionate number of women who have undiagnosed and untreated heart disease.
AI can predict risk of serious heart disease from mammograms
The risk of serious or fatal heart disease can be predicted with artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of mammograms, according to research published in the European Heart Journal. The study shows that AI can be used to assess the build-up of calcium deposits in the arteries of the breast from the standard X-ray mammography scans that are currently used in routine breast cancer screening.
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