Structural Heart Abnormality

Doctors are testing a new tool called EchoNext to see if it can help find heart problems earlier. EchoNext looks at the heart's electrical test, called an ECG, and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to check for signs of structural heart disease (SHD). SHD includes conditions like weak heart pumping, heart valve problems, or extra thickening of the heart muscle. These problems are common but often go undiagnosed until they cause serious issues like heart failure or stroke. The main questions this study will answer are: Can EchoNext alerts help emergency doctors find hidden heart problems sooner? Does this lead to more follow-up heart tests, like an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound)? What this means for patients: If a person has an ECG in the Emergency Department, the EchoNext tool may be used to check their heart. If the tool finds something unusual, their doctor may receive an alert and may then recommend further heart tests or follow-up care. This study will help researchers learn if using EchoNext improves early diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

Structural heart disease refers to a group of cardiac defects other than coronary artery disease. Structural heart intervention is a rapidly growing field in cardiology. In the past decade, there has been paradigm shift in the management of structural heart disease from conventional open-heart surgery to transcatheter interventions. With increasing evidence supporting structural heart interventions including transcatheter aortic valve implantation or transcatheter edge to edge repair, there has important updates in recent guidelines in treating structural heart disease. Besides, new device innovations bloomed over the past few years and had expanded the possible treatment options for high surgical risk patients. Some breakthrough devices had been approved recently by the US Food and Drug Administration and some other devices are occasionally used on compassionate ground. However, there has been lack of data in structural heart interventions in Asia Pacific regions outside Japan \[8\]. In this study, we would like to analyze the epidemiological trends, patient characteristics, procedural outcomes and clinical outcomes of structural heart interventions, and compare them with historical cohorts, matched cohort receiving medical therapy and matched cohort receiving open heart surgeries.