With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), arterial inflammation measured with coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) can predict fatal and nonfatal events in patients with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study that suggests this approach would change treatment about half the time.
In patients with nonobstructive CAD, CCTA measurement of inflammation on the basis of the Fat Attenuation Index (FAI) "predicts fatal and nonfatal cardiac events independently from clinical risk scores and routine CCTA interpretation," reported Charalambos Antoniades, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Oxford, England.
This analysis was based on data from ORFAN, an ongoing study that expects to eventually collect data from 250,000 CCTA. There were multiple goals. The first was to evaluate whether there is a need and a role of CCTA to risk stratify patients without obstructive CAD. A second objective was to evaluate if the FAI inflammation score can quantify residual risk in these patients.
Based on the answers to these questions, the investigators then proceeded to determine if an AI risk model that combines data from the FAI score and risk factors is widely generalizable and, in addition, whether it reclassifies patients in a way meaningful to management.
