Scientists at the Perm State University (PSNRU) in the West Urals have developed an intelligent cardiovascular diseases diagnostics and prognostication system built on advanced artificial neural networks (ANNs).

The Perm-originating ANN is said to be able to analyze information on all the diseases a patient and his relatives have had in their life, as well as on heartbeat, blood pressure, etc.—69 parameters all told.

Such networks don’t have to be constantly re-programmed as they learn and grow all on their own.

Some consistent patterns have reportedly been identified in the research. For example, the ANNs showed that suffering from diabetes has no impact on myocardial infarction predisposition; gaining or losing weight is not tied to developing arrhythmia; slowing or stopping pulse transmission in the cardiac muscle does not necessarily lead to heart block. The networks also revealed that the hereditary factor increases risk of infarction development by 6.25% and hypertension by 7.4%.