According to a recent British study, the shape of the heart could alert on the occurrence of heart diseases, in particular cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
- The shape of the heart could be an alerting factor to the onset of heart disease.
- British researchers have tried to determine if the shape of the heart is a predictor of cardiovascular health before a diagnosis is made.
- A slight increase in the sphericity of the left ventricle increases the risk of developing cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation or heart failure by 47%.
Could the shape of the heart prevent the onset of heart disease? In any case, this is what a new study conducted by Stanford Medicine (United Kingdom) suggests. “Most people who practice cardiology are well aware that after a person develops heart disease, the heart will look more spherical (…) It is not a guarantee that having high sphericity means that you will have a clinical manifestation. It’s just a marker for high risk people. Other factors could be at play.”specified Shoa Clarke, cardiologist, in a statement.
The sphericity of the heart could alert to the onset of heart disease
During this research, the scientists used data from a biobank. The objective was to determine if the shape of the heart is an important predictor of cardiovascular health before making an accurate diagnosis. They then measured the sphericity of the left ventricle of 38,897 healthy hearts with artificial intelligence.
The researchers then observed that a slight increase in the roundness of the heart was associated with a 47% increase in the risk of developing cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation or heart failure.
Increased roundness of the heart: a factor in the prevention of cardiac pathologies
For the authors of the study, intrinsic diseases of the heart muscle, in other words lesions that are not due to a heart attack, increase the sphericity of the left ventricle of the heart even before these pathologies are known.
The presence of increased sphericity would therefore allow “to identify individuals with underlying molecular/cellular abnormalities, which put them at increased risk of developing overt cardiomyopathy or related diseases such as atrial fibrillation”, say the scientists. “An increase in sphericity is not necessarily indicative of a serious condition down the line. The majority of people in the study cohort, who had some degree of sphericity, did not develop clinical disease, at least during the follow-up period, which in some cases extended up to a decade.”
