The Move Toward More Comprehensive Screening with Computed Tomography: An Interview with David Yankelevitz, MD

While the recently FDA-cleared AI-CVD software for computed tomography (CT) is primarily focused on cardiovascular risk, the inclusion of lung, liver and muscle fat assessments within the AI-CVD software’s 10 FDA-cleared modules signals an ongoing evolution toward multisystem screening in imaging, according to David Yankelevitz, M.D.

“It's not just looking at coronary calcium. It's not just looking at chamber size. I think the idea that there's an interaction here with all of these things is very important, and I think it will yield much better results. We can't think of everything in isolation. It's kind of allowing us to, through one imaging test, get a much more comprehensive phenotype of the person. This is something that really hasn't been done before, so I think that's the real value here,” explained Dr. Yankelevitz, a professor of radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

In a recent interview with Diagnostic Imaging, Dr. Yankelevitz acknowledged there will be a learning curve for radiologists and other clinicians in processing and reporting the information gleaned from the AI-CVD software (HeartLung). However, Dr. Yankelevitz said the potential with such software to improve long-term risk stratification beyond common blood tests and facilitate earlier intervention for those at risk for conditions including atrial fibrillation, incipient diabetes and aortic stenosis is undeniable.

“These phenotypical representations of a person are more predictive even than these blood tests, and they're eventually not going to be used in isolation. We're going to figure out how to put this together, and we're going to figure out how to put this together with genetic information. But the idea that you can make these phenotypic characterizations of a person in a comprehensive way, I think that's fantastic,” maintained Dr. Yankelevitz.

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “FDA Clears AI Software for Opportunistic Multisystem Computed Tomography Screening,” “Can CT-Based AI Provide an Objective Biomarker of Chronic Stress?” and “Computed Tomography: 2025 Year in Review.”)

For more insights from Dr. Yankelevitz, watch the video below.