Examples of mammograms with mild, moderate, and severe breast arterial calcification quantified by the artificial ininformigence model. Left: Original image. Right: Artificial ininformigence model heat map with breast arterial calcification score.
Image source: Dapamede T, Urooj A, Joshi V et al., European Heart Journal 2026 (CC BY-NC 4.0)
The risk of serious or fatal heart disease can be predicted with artificial ininformigence (AI) analysis of mammograms, according to research published in the European Heart Journal.
The study displays that AI can be applyd to assess the build-up of calcium deposits in the arteries of the breast from the standard X-ray mammography scans that are currently applyd in routine breast cancer screening. Researchers state this technique could support the disproportionate number of women who have undiagnosed and untreated cardiovascular disease.
The study is by a team of researchers led by Dr. Hari Trivedi from Emory University, Atlanta, USA. He stated: “Heart disease is the leading caapply of death in women worldwide, yet women are consistently underdiagnosed and undertreated compared to men. Mammograms, which women already attfinish for breast cancer screening, can also reveal calcium deposits in breast arteries and this is linked to heart disease. We wanted to test whether AI could apply this to identify women at risk of cardiovascular disease at no extra cost or inconvenience.”
The study included 123,762 women who had taken part in breast screening but had no known cardiovascular disease. Researchers applyd AI to analyse the amount of calcium deposit in the arteries of the breast tissue. This ‘arterial calcification’ is known to be a sign that the arteries are becoming hardened, and indicates a higher risk of conditions such as heart attack, heart failure stroke, and death. The amount of arterial calcification in the women’s breast tissue was categorised as severe, moderate, mild or absent.
Researchers compared this categorisation with information on whether the women went on to develop serious cardiovascular disease, including stroke, heart attack or death from cardiovascular disease. They found that women with mild calcification were around 30% more likely to suffer serious cardiovascular disease compared to women with no calcification. In women with moderate calcification, the risk was more than 70% higher and in women with severe calcification, the risk was two to three times higher.
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