UC Berkeley Study Uses AI to Link Cardiac Fibrosis to Sudden Death Risk

A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature used artificial intelligence to identify people at highest risk of sudden cardiac death and found cardiac fibrosis commonly present in those individuals. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley conducted the work, according to reporting by @statnews. Cardiac fibrosis is scar tissue scattered throughout the heart.

Sudden cardiac arrest kills upward of 350,000 people a year in the United States. The condition can be prevented with an implantable defibrillator, though determining who needs one has remained difficult. The study adds evidence connecting fibrosis to elevated fatality risk in cases that often evade prior detection methods.