Bonus Finding

How breast cancer screening can predict heart disease risk

- Lauren J. Young

MAMMOGRAMS, WHICH ARE KEY to detecting breast cancer, could be paired with artificial intelligence to predict heart disease risk, too.

Researchers have developed an AI model that scans mammograms to quantify bright streaks of calcium buildup, a marker of stiffened breast artery tissues. The severity of these so-called breast arterial calcifications (BAC) can help to predict associated heart disease risk, researchers report in the European Heart Journal. The model “can be run on every single mammogram without any additional work,” says study coauthor Hari Trivedi, an Emory University radiologist—and more than 40 million mammograms are conducted in the U.S. every year.