ACC: Screening Mammograms + AI May ID Cardiovascular Disease
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, March 27, 2025 -- Automated deep learning-based quantification of breast arterial calcification (BAC) on routine screening mammograms may allow for opportunistic screening for cardiovascular disease events and death in women, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 29 to 31 in Chicago.
Theo Dapamede, M.D., Ph.D., from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues examined the prognostic value of BAC for adverse cardiovascular disease events and all-cause death in the general population. A deep learning model was built on data from 56,605 women with screening mammograms between 2013 and 2020 and at least five years of follow-up.
The researchers found that event rates for acute myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, or all-cause death significantly increased with BAC level in patients aged younger than 60 years and 60 to 80 years. Compared with patients with BAC <10 mm2, patients with BAC >40 mm2 had lower average five-year event-free survival (acute myocardial infarction: 96.8 versus 91.0 percent; stroke: 93.1 versus 83.7 percent; heart failure: 95.7 versus 84.7 percent; death: 95.3 versus 86.4 percent).
"Advances in deep learning and artificial intelligence have made it much more feasible to extract and use more information from images to inform opportunistic screening," Dapamede said in a statement.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted March 2025
Read this next
Seniors With RSV-Linked Hospitalization Have Increased Cardiovascular Outcomes
THURSDAY, July 24, 2025 -- In older adults, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular outcome, especially heart failure events...
Increased Risk for CVD Seen for Women With Premenstrual Disorders
THURSDAY, July 17, 2025 -- Women with premenstrual disorders (PMDs) have an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), according to a study published online July 11 in...
AI Support Improves Breast Cancer Detection Accuracy in Mammography
MONDAY, July 14, 2025 -- Artificial intelligence (AI) support improves radiologists' breast cancer detection accuracy when reading mammograms, according to a study published...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.