The Canary in the Coal Mine of Your Heart
In case you don’t know this phrase, the “Canary In The Coal Mine” refers to caged canaries that served as sensitive early warning signs for miners. They’d carry them into the mine tunnels, knowing that dangerous gases like carbon monoxide would kill the canary before killing them.
So the health of the canary predicted the health of the miners, and any “canary in a coal mine” is an early warning sign that can prevent disaster.
That’s where this research comes in. Scientists have developed their own artificial intelligence (AI) canary in the coal mine, but for your heart. The system they developed can analyze ordinary eye scans from the eye clinic, and then use that identify patients at a high risk of a heart attack.
Why Is It A Canary?
The retinal blood vessels in the back of your are very sensitive to wider vascular damage in your body. So if they’re unwell, you’re likely having heart and blood vessel damage in other places too.
Knowing this, these researchers “taught” an AI system to detect these kinds of microscopic changes in retinal blood vessels. Once they did that they could use predictive analytics to tell those people who were likely to have a heart attack over the next year!
Bottom Line
The test is simple. It’s safe. And it can predict an upcoming heart attack with an accuracy of between 70% and 80%. In any case, your normal doctor could use it as a referral system for more in-depth cardiovascular examination.
And further good news is that no canaries were harmed in the process of all this research!
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