Advanced Plaque Analysis with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
What it is: An exciting development in cardiac CT imaging is the use of AI to assist in the analysis of coronary artery plaque. While the coronary artery calcium score gives us a good idea of risk, doing a CT coronary angiogram (described in the next section) and performing AI plaque analysis provides you with a precise picture of types, quantity and distribution of coronary artery plaque that can be tracked over time and can be used to personalize preventive approaches. My Heart Vision can send your images to pioneering companies Cleerly Health and Heartflow to provide you with a more in-depth and personalized analysis of your coronary artery health.
How it works: The analysis is done on the images that are obtained from the CT Coronary angiogram, which you can read about in the next section. After the images are acquired, they are sent for AI analysis. You will get a report on the total amount of plaque as a percentage of the volume of the coronary arteries (percent atheroma volume or PAV) and amount of each type of plaque: calcified, soft plaque and high-risk soft plaque. The results will allow a more personalized approach to treatment. The presence of large dense calcified plaques with a low burden of other non-calcified plaque means you have done a good job at managing your risk. A disproportionate amount of non-calcified plaque means there is still work to be done to get your arteries healthy as you age.
Listen to Dr. Agatston, the inventor of the coronary artery calcium score speak about the new era of comprehensive plaque assessment.
Does Insurance Cover this? Currently, there is no insurance coverage for Advanced Plaque analysis.
Bottom Line: Advanced Plaque analysis is cutting edge technology that is performed in conjunction with CT coronary angiography to provide a more detailed assessment of coronary artery health. This allows a more personalized precision approach to treatment.