Mumbai: Artificial intelligence has boosted tuberculosis detection in the city in the past two years even among those with no apparent symptoms of the deadly disease, according to civic doctors.
BMC Chief Health Officer Dr Mangala Gomare told TOI: “About 35 percent of our confirmed TB cases were detected incidentally, that is, they were part of a non-TB patient group.” In other words, these were patients who visited the civic health care center for complaints other than tuberculosis, but underwent an X-ray scan that was analyzed by AI software.
In 2021 and 2022, more than 1 lakh people underwent AI-supported X-ray scans for TB at nine BMC-run hospitals as part of the pilot study.
The BMC partnered with qure.ai, a digital health startup, for the study. The company’s AI-based software, developed after scanning thousands of TB chest X-ray reports, would flag chest X-ray scans that presumably looked like patches of TB. “AI-based detection is very helpful for us to make an early diagnosis, even when the patient may have few symptoms,” said Dr. Gomare.
Dr. Shibu Vijayan from qure.ai said that studies have shown that almost 40 percent of TB patients are asymptomatic in the first few days. “Unless a patient has symptoms, they will not be required to undergo a sputum test. But with AI-enabled X-ray scans, one can detect TB as early as possible and ensure treatment starts early.” said Dr. Vijayan.
In 2022, 57,781 patients were examined using the AI-supported X-ray scanners in the civic hospitals that were part of the pilot project. Of these, the AI software marked 10,225 with a presumption of TB. “Once we receive the diagnosis of AI, we call the patient back for clinical evaluation,” a civic health official said.
Therefore, 9,702 of the 10,225 patients with suspected TB were asked to return for sputum collection that would help confirm the TB diagnosis. However, only 2,376 presented for sputum collection, and 704 of these turned out to have a confirmed TB diagnosis. Although the pilot program is over, BMC is likely to link up with AI companies for the long term. The BMC has recorded more than 65,000 TB cases in 2022-2023, which is the highest annual detection so far.
In 2021-2022, the BMC detected 58,221 confirmed cases of tuberculosis.
