Robots are much better than doctors at spotting heart attacks in women, experts find
ROBOTS are much better than doctors at spotting heart attacks in women, experts have found.
Medics are 50 per cent more likely to miss a potentially fatal cardiac problem in females than they are in males.
It is partly due to doctors expecting victims to be fat, middle-aged blokes.
But now scientists are using artificial intelligence to fix the problem.
By entering personal data alongside blood test results, a new Edinburgh University app can rule out a heart attack 99.5 per cent of the time.
It can identify 84 per cent of patients that need to stay in hospital, compared to 49 per cent with current tests, the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress in Barcelona was told.
Consultant cardiologist Professor Chris Gale from Leeds Uni, whose 2018 study found women heart attack patients are 50 per cent more likely to be missed, said: “This has the potential to save lives.
“If women get an uncertain diagnosis we know the follow through care is slower and there are missed opportunities and excess deaths.”
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Dr Allyah Abbas-Hanif, of Imperial College London, said: "The gender disparity in the assessment of a heart attack, has led to worrying misdiagnosis and delays for women, tragically leading to thousands of women unnecessarily dying.”
Heart attack patients can receive clot-dissolving drugs, or medics can use a balloon or surgery to restore blood flow.
Professor Nick Mills of the British Heart Foundation Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the Edinburgh University, said: “Each year in the UK there are half a million hospital visits from people experiencing chest pain, with more than 200,000 visits due to heart attacks.
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“Our current approach is imperfect with one in five people re-attending at 30 days and one in 20 having a heart attack or dying from cardiovascular disease at one year.
“Our mission is to fast-track improvements in heart attack diagnosis, and we hope our CoDE-ACS app will be rolled out in emergency departments across the UK.”