Clinical Decision Support for Patient Cases with Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis Using AI Models and Electronic Medical Records

An artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of electronic medical records (EMRs) was performed to analyze the differences between patients with carotid stenosis who developed symptomatic disease and those who remained asymptomatic. The EMRs of 872 patients who underwent a carotid endarterectomy between 2009 and 2022 were analyzed with AI. This included 408 patients who had carotid intervention for symptomatic carotid disease and 464 patients for asymptomatic, >70% stenosis. By analyzing the EMRs, the Support Vector Machine achieved the highest sensitivity at 0.626 for predicting which of these patients would go on to develop a stroke or TIA. Random Forest had the highest specificity at 0.906. The risk for stroke in patients with carotid stenosis was a balance between optimum medical treatment and the underlying disease processes. Risk factors for developing symptomatic carotid disease included elevated glucose, chronic kidney disease, hyperlipidemia, and current or recent smoking, while protective factors included cardiovascular agents, antihypertensives, and beta blockers. An AI review of EMRs can help determine which patients with carotid stenosis are more likely to develop a stroke to assist with decision making as to whether to proceed with intervention or to demonstrate and encourage reduced stroke risk with risk factor modification.