A new artificial intelligence tool can identify hidden heart disease risks up to 15 years before symptoms appear by analyzing a single blood sample. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong created CardiOmicScore, which examines thousands of proteins and metabolites to estimate a person's future risk of six major cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation.

How Does This AI Blood Test Work Differently From Current Methods?

Traditional heart disease risk assessments rely on factors like age, blood pressure, smoking history, and cholesterol levels. While useful, these measurements may miss the earliest biological changes happening inside the body before disease becomes noticeable. Genetic risk scores offer another approach, but they have a significant limitation: a person's genes are largely fixed at birth, so they cannot reflect changes caused by diet, exercise, aging, or environmental factors.

CardiOmicScore takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of relying solely on genetics, the system uses deep learning to combine data from multiple layers of biology, a technique called multiomics. The researchers analyzed 2,920 circulating proteins and 168 metabolites measured in blood samples from the UK Biobank. These molecules provide a detailed snapshot of a person's current biological state, reflecting subtle changes in immune activity, metabolism, and vascular health before symptoms develop.

"Genes determine where we start, they define our baseline health risk. However, proteins and metabolites reflect our current physical health. Our AI tool is designed to decode these complex molecular signals, enabling doctors and patients to identify risks much earlier, which can potentially change the trajectory of disease through timely lifestyle modifications and early prevention," explained Professor Zhang Qingpeng, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Zhang Qingpeng, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong

What Six Cardiovascular Conditions Can This Test Predict?

CardiOmicScore was designed to assess risk for multiple serious heart and circulation problems simultaneously. Among people at elevated risk, the model could detect warning signals as far as 15 years before clinical onset. The six conditions the test evaluates are:

• Coronary Artery Disease: Narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.
• Stroke: Interruption of blood flow to the brain, often caused by a clot or rupture.
• Heart Failure: The heart's reduced ability to pump blood effectively throughout the body.
• Atrial Fibrillation: An irregular heartbeat that can increase the risk of stroke and other complications.
• Peripheral Artery Disease: Narrowed blood vessels that reduce circulation to the limbs.
• Venous Thromboembolism: Dangerous blood clots that form in a vein and may travel to the lungs.

The findings were published in Nature Communications, and the research reflects a broader shift in precision medicine toward identifying disease before it develops rather than treating it after symptoms appear.

How Accurate Is CardiOmicScore Compared to Other Risk Assessment Tools?

The results showed that CardiOmicScore performed substantially better than conventional polygenic risk scores, which rely on genetic information alone. The system's accuracy improved further when researchers added clinical information such as age and gender. This combination of biological data and demographic factors creates a more complete picture of a person's cardiovascular health than either approach alone.

The significance of this advancement lies in timing. Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for approximately 19.8 million fatalities in 2022 alone. By identifying at-risk individuals up to 15 years before symptoms emerge, doctors and patients have a much longer window to intervene with lifestyle changes, closer monitoring, or other preventive measures.

Steps to Understanding Your Cardiovascular Risk Profile

While CardiOmicScore is still a research tool not yet widely available in clinical practice, understanding how modern risk assessment works can help you take a more proactive approach to heart health:

• Know Your Baseline: Discuss your family history of heart disease with your doctor, as genetic factors do influence your starting point for cardiovascular risk.
• Track Modifiable Factors: Monitor lifestyle elements like diet, exercise, stress levels, and sleep quality, since proteins and metabolites in your blood reflect these current behaviors and can change over time.
• Request Comprehensive Screening: Ask your healthcare provider about advanced blood tests and risk assessments beyond standard cholesterol panels, especially if you have family history or other risk factors.

The shift from reactive treatment to proactive prediction represents a significant change in how medicine approaches chronic disease. Rather than waiting for symptoms to appear, precision medicine tools like CardiOmicScore aim to catch disease in its earliest stages when intervention is most effective. As this technology develops and becomes more accessible, it could give millions of people the opportunity to prevent serious cardiovascular events before they occur.