Researchers in Australia at the independent global medical research institute, The George Institute for Global Health, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, have developed a machine learning model that can analyze mammography images to successfully predict the risk of cardiovascular events in women.
While the idea to use mammogram images to understand this risk is not new, studies to date have focused merely on few features in mammographic images, such as breast arterial calcification.
The researchers trained their automated algorithm to analyze the full range of internal breast structures and characteristics from these routine mammogram images, taking into account the women's age to predict their major cardiovascular disease risk over ten years.
The researchers found that the model performed just as well without the need for extensive clinical and medical data.
The model is the first to use a range of features from mammographic images combined simply with age—a key advantage of this approach being that it doesn't require additional history taking or medical record data, making it less resource intensive to implement, but still highly accurate.
【MORE】