Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed an AI-powered technique to identify which patients with heart failure will benefit from treatment with beta-blockers.
The study involved 15,669 patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction – low function of the heart’s main pumping chamber. Some 12,823 of the patients were in normal heart rhythm and 2,837 of which had atrial fibrillation (AF) – a heart rhythm condition commonly associated with heart failure that leads to worse outcomes.
The team used a series of AI techniques to deeply interrogate data from clinical trials. This approach could take account of different underlying health conditions for each patient, as well as the interactions of these conditions to isolate response to beta-blocker therapy.
According to the study, it worked in patients with normal heart rhythm, where doctors would normally expect beta-blockers to reduce the risk of death, as well as in patients with AF where previous work has found a lack of effectiveness.
In normal heart rhythm, a cluster of patients were identified with reduced benefit from beta-blockers due to a combination of older age, less severe symptoms and lower heart rate than average. In patients with AF, the research found a cluster of patients who had a reduction in death with beta-blockers (from 15% to 9% in younger patients with lower rates of prior heart attack, but similar heart function to the average AF patient).
Author Georgios Gkoutos, professor of clinical bioinformatics at the University of Birmingham, said: “Although tested in our research in trials of beta-blockers, these novel AI approaches have clear potential across the spectrum of therapies in heart failure, and across other cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular conditions.”
The research was led by the cardAIc group, a multi-disciplinary team of clinical and data scientists at the University of Birmingham and the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, aiming to integrate AI techniques to improve the care of cardiovascular patients.
Data was collated and harmonised by the Beta-blockers in Heart Failure Collaborative Group, a global consortium dedicated to enhancing treatment for patients with heart failure.
