Mumbai: Artificial intelligence has boosted the detection of tuberculosis in the city in the last two years even among those with no outward symptoms of the deadly disease, according to civic doctors.
BMC executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare told TOI, “Around 35 per cent of our confirmed TB cases were incidentally detected, that is they were part of a non-TB group of patients.” In other words, these were patients who visited the civic healthcare setup for complaints other than TB but underwent an X-ray scan that was analysed by AI software.
In 2021 and 2022, over 1 lakh people underwent AI-supported X-ray scans for TB at nine BMC-run hospitals as a part of the pilot study.
The BMC tied up with qure.ai, a digital health startup company, for the study. The company’s AI-based software, developed after scanning lakhs of TB chest X-ray reports, would flag off chest X-ray scans that presumably looked like TB patches. “AI-based screening is very useful for us to make an early diagnosis even when the patient perhaps has little symptoms,” said Dr Gomare.
Dr Shibu Vijayan of qure.ai said that studies have shown that almost 40 per cent of the TB patients are asymptomatic in early days. “Unless a patient is symptomatic, he or she would not be asked to undergo a sputum test. But with AI-supported X-ray scans, one can detect TB at the earliest and ensure treatment starts early,” said Dr Vijayan.
In 2022, 57,781 patients were screened using the AI-supported X-ray scanners at the civic hospitals that were a part of the pilot project. Of these, the AI software flagged off 10,225 as having presumptive TB. “Once we get the AI diagnosis, we call back the patient for a clinical evaluation,” said a civic health official.
Thus, 9,702 out of the 10,225 presumed TB patients were asked to return for sputum collection that would help confirm the TB diagnosis. However, only 2,376 turned up for sputum collection, and 704 of them turned out to have a confirmed TB diagnosis. Although the pilot programme is over, the BMC is likely to tie up with AI companies on a long-term basis. The BMC has recorded over 65,000 TB cases in 2022-2023 that is the highest annual detection ever so far.
In 2021-2022, the BMC had picked up 58,221 confirmed TB cases.