Utilization of artificial intelligence in echocardiography

Abstract

Echocardiography has a central role in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease. Precise and reliable echocardiographic assessment is required for clinical decision-making. Even if the development of new technologies (3-dimentional echocardiography, speckle-tracking, semi-automated analysis, etc.), the final decision on analysis is strongly dependent on operator experience. Diagnostic errors are a major unresolved problem. Moreover, not only can cardiologists differ from one another in image interpretation, but also the same observer may come to different findings when a reading is repeated. Daily high workloads in clinical practice may lead to this error, and all cardiologists require precise perception in this field. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve analysis and interpretation of medical images to a new stage compared with previous algorithms. From our comprehensive review, we believe AI has the potential to improve accuracy of diagnosis, clinical management, and patient care. Although there are several concerns about the required large dataset and “black box” algorithm, AI can provide satisfactory results in this field. In the future, it will be necessary for cardiologists to adapt their daily practice to incorporate AI in this new stage of echocardiography.