Reducing Diagnostic Variation With Hybrid AI Coronary CTA Interpretation.

BACKGROUND

In hospitalized patients undergoing coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), variability in stenosis interpretation may contribute to missed obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) or unnecessary invasive coronary angiography.

PROJECT SUMMARY: We retrospectively evaluated inpatient CCTA interpretation workflows at a tertiary academic center between 2023 and 2025. Among 177 hospitalized patients undergoing CCTA, 139 had both artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted and physician interpretations available for comparison. Twenty patients underwent same-admission invasive coronary angiography, with 19 included in final invasive angiographic analysis. AI-assisted interpretation demonstrated higher agreement with invasive coronary angiography than physician interpretation within the exploratory invasive angiography subgroup (78.6% vs 55.0%). Discordance patterns were primarily driven by false-negative physician interpretations and AI-assisted stenosis overestimation. Significant CAD was identified in 73.7% of the invasive angiography subgroup, with 52.6% ultimately undergoing revascularization.

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE: Hybrid AI-physician interpretation workflows may support more consistent inpatient CAD evaluation while preserving physician-guided clinical decision making.