A WA researcher and his global team have successfully shown that artificial intelligence can detect a marker of heart disease from bone scans.

Edith Cowan University professor Joshua Lewis used an AI algorithm on the DEXA bone density scans — a tool that assesses osteoporosis risk — of 50,000 people, finding it could detect if someone had a risk of heart disease in seconds.

The AI tool could detect if someone had a build-up of calcium in their abdominal aorta, a major marker of heart disease risk, which offered early detection and prevention of a heart attack or stroke.

Currently, the detection of calcification is only limited to a specialist review, which can be an expensive and time-consuming process.

Professor Lewis said the results could mean that about 700,000 Australians who undergo a DEXA bone scan annually could also learn about their heart health using the same machine.

“Heart disease is one of Australia’s biggest killers and what we’ve done in the research has shown that we may have found a new way to spot risk earlier,” he said.

“Vascular calcification often starts in the abdominal aorta before blood vessels such as the heart and so if you can detect it earlier, then you can make those changes, whether they be diet or lifestyle or medications, to prevent going on to having a heart attack or stroke.”

For Pippa Luke, finding out she had blood vessel disease changed her life for the better.

“Getting the results was definitely a catalyst for increasing my knowledge and awareness of heart health because otherwise it’s very silent — you don’t know you have anything,” she said.

“It motivated me to reassess my lifestyle and look at changes, which included regular exercise as well as cardio and resistance exercises, also adopting a Mediterranean diet, and getting more regular heart health checks.

“Without the scans, you can go blindly on until the calcification build up is too great and you end up having heart attack or a much longer road back to better health.”

The research is coming to life through the Heart Foundation’s Catalyst Partnership program, which gave funding to the project in 2025.

Professor Lewis said he was now seeking further backing from private and philanthropic funders to bring this groundbreaking research to patients sooner.

“Australia is home to some of the leading minds in cardiovascular research and this work is one example of how Heart Foundation donors enable us to fund life-changing research that can have an impact in preventing heart disease for future generations,” Heart Foundation chief medical advisor Garry Jennings said.