Researchers at Stamford Health are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help determine a person's risk of having a heart attack.

Their work is part of an overall mission to get information to patients in time for them to prevent a health crisis.

Dr. Suzanne Rose and her team have found signs of heart disease in people long before they begin to feel any symptoms. In some cases, they discovered signs of the disease before people have started to make their heart health a priority.

"These could be people who have never seen a cardiologist. But they could be walking around being ticking time bombs, having no idea they have progressive disease occurring in the vessels around their heart," says Rose.

Using AI software, the team looks at images from CT scans to see if calcium has built up in the coronary arteries. Doctors say that is an indication that plaque has accumulated and can cause the arteries to narrow, which makes it harder to supply blood to the heart.

"We know that when people have these calcifications in the arteries in their heart, they have a higher risk of having heart attacks, of having a stroke or any type of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," says Rose.

Rose says people receive a CT scan if they are experiencing any type of chest pain, have pneumonia or bronchitis.

She says there are currently 70 clinical trials taking place using AI.

The research team has also used AI to check mammograms and see if a patient has calcium built up in the arteries of their breasts. Rose says studies have found an association between breast artery calcification and coronary artery calcification.

Rose says this data may lead to a new way to help identify when a woman is at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and allow doctors to create targeted prevention strategies.