A stethoscope "upgraded" with AI technology can help doctors detect three heart conditions in just 15 seconds.
This is the revelation of researchers from Imperial College in the UK, who have shown that the smart stethoscope can increase the early detection of heart failure.
The stethoscope, first invented in 1816, is used to listen to sounds within the body. But the study claims a technology-aided version can do much more, including analyzing tiny differences in heartbeat and blood flow that are undetectable to the human ear -- and taking a rapid ECG at the same time.
"This is an elegant example of how the humble stethoscope, invented more than 200 years ago, can be upgraded for the 21st century," Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation and consultant cardiologist, said in a statement.
"It is incredible that a smart stethoscope can be used for a 15-second examination, and then AI can quickly deliver a test result indicating whether someone has heart failure, atrial fibrillation or heart valve disease," added Imperial's Dr. Patrik Bächtiger.
The team confirmed to Newsweek that a doctor will still identify the patients who would benefit from an AI stethoscope examination, so their clinical judgment of suspicious symptoms is still highly important.
In the U.S., nearly 6.7 million adults who are aged 20 or over have heart failure, a condition in which the heart does not pump blood around the body properly. While for some people symptoms may start suddenly, for others they will develop gradually.
"Most people with heart failure are only diagnosed when they arrive in A&E [or ER] seriously ill," said Imperial's Dr. Mihir Kelshiker in a statement.
"This trial shows that AI-enabled stethoscopes could change that -- giving GPs a quick, simple tool to spot problems earlier, so patients can get the right treatment sooner."
The study, involving more than 200 doctor offices with more than 1.5 million registered patients, looked at people with symptoms like breathlessness, fatigue or swelling of the lower legs and/or feet. In total, the tech was trialed on 12,725 patients.
Findings showed that those examined with the smart stethoscope were twice as likely to be diagnosed with heart failure as those who were not, and 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation -- an abnormal heart rhythm which can increase the risk of having a stroke.
Furthermore, they were almost twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of heart valve disease, which is where one or more heart valves do not work properly.
If found to be at high risk, participants had their diagnosis confirmed with a blood test for a hormone called BNP -- which is at a higher level when someone has heart failure -- and a heart scan.
The patients examined within 96 doctor offices in North West London were compared to patients from another 109 doctor offices in the area where AI stethoscopes were not used.
People examined using the upgraded stethoscopes were 2.33 times more likely to be diagnosed with heart failure in the next 12 months.
The device -- about the size of a playing card -- is placed on a patient's chest to take an ECG recording of the electrical signals from their heart, while its microphone records the sound of blood flowing through the heart.
This information is sent securely to a cloud storage area to be analyzed by AI algorithms, which have been trained on health data from tens of thousands of people and can detect subtle heart problems a human could miss.
A test result, indicating whether the patient has been flagged as at-risk for heart failure or not, is sent straight back to a smartphone.
A separate algorithm can detect atrial fibrillation, which often has no symptoms but is a contributing factor to some strokes and can be managed with blood-thinning medications.
The researchers flagged that 70 percent of clinics given smart stethoscopes in the study stopped using them, or used them infrequently, after 12 months. They suggest that efforts to better integrate the technology into doctors' existing routines would be needed to roll the technology out more widely.
The study also showed two-thirds of people identified by the AI stethoscope as having suspected heart failure did not in fact have it when given a further blood test or heart scan.
The researchers acknowledged this could lead to unnecessary anxiety and tests for some people, but pointed out that for other patients, using the AI stethoscope could detect signs of heart failure that might otherwise have been missed and still save time on referrals.
"The AI will become far more accurate, because it learns from every patient whose stethoscope examinations it analyses," Dr. Kelshiker told Newsweek.
"Unfortunately, it is common in the healthcare system for patients to have tests they don't need sometimes, but for these suspected heart conditions, those tests will be a quick and safe scan or blood test -- and crucially, many patients will receive treatment earlier, which improves their quality of life. Where people do not have the conditions, they will have the reassurance that these types of illness have been ruled out."
The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), British Heart Foundation and Imperial Health Charity.
The team are now looking roll out the technology -- which was manufactured by the Californian company Eko Health -- to doctors' practices in Wales, South London and Sussex.
The technology is increasingly being used in primary care in the U.S., according to the UK researchers, who say they have completed the first large-scale study of the potential benefits in real-world settings.