Artificial Intelligence in Cardiovascular Imaging: From Automated Acquisition to Precision Diagnostics and Clinical Decision Support

TL;DR

AI can improve cardiovascular imaging by making it more efficient, accurate, and accessible, but challenges remain in real-world implementation.

Contribution

This review highlights AI's potential in cardiovascular imaging and identifies barriers to clinical adoption.

Findings

AI improves reproducibility, efficiency, and scalability of cardiovascular imaging workflows.

Automated algorithms reduce operator dependence and support standardized biomarker extraction.

Multimodal AI models enable integrated disease phenotyping and personalized decision support.

Abstract

Cardiovascular imaging is a cornerstone of modern cardiology, yet its clinical impact is limited by operator dependence, inter-observer variability, time-consuming workflows, and unequal access to advanced expertise. Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly machine learning and deep learning, offers new opportunities to overcome these limitations. This review aims to summarize current and emerging AI applications in cardiovascular imaging and to evaluate their potential clinical value in precision diagnostics and decision support. This narrative review synthesizes clinically relevant literature on AI applications across major cardiovascular imaging modalities, including echocardiography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance, cardiac computed tomography, and nuclear cardiology. Evidence was analyzed with a focus on AI-enabled acquisition support, image segmentation, quantitative and functional assessment, workflow automation, and risk stratification, alongside key methodological and implementation considerations. Across imaging modalities, AI-driven approaches have demonstrated improved reproducibility, efficiency, and scalability of cardiovascular imaging workflows. Automated algorithms reduce operator dependence, facilitate standardized extraction of imaging biomarkers, and support advanced functional assessment and prognostic stratification. Recent developments in video-based, temporal, and multimodal models further expand AI capabilities from technical automation toward integrated disease phenotyping and personalized clinical decision support. However, translation into routine practice remains limited by heterogeneous datasets, insufficient external validation, algorithmic bias, limited interpretability, and challenges related to regulatory approval and workflow integration. Artificial intelligence has the potential to reshape cardiovascular imaging into a more efficient, reproducible, and patient-centered precision medicine tool. Real-world clinical impact will depend on outcome-driven evaluation, robust external validation, multimodal data integration, and human-in-the-loop implementation strategies that ensure safe, equitable, and clinically meaningful adoption.

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