Artificial Intelligence May Accurately Detect Heart Transplant Rejection

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Artificial intelligence may help detect heart transplant rejection without the need for invasive biopsies, according to a new study led by researchers from NYU Langone Health. The study, published online on September 25 in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, explored whether combining electrocardiograms (EKGs) and blood tests could accurately identify rejection without the need for an invasive biopsy in many cases.

The research team trained AI models to recognize patterns in 5,300 EKG readings taken from 2,357 adult heart transplant recipients. One AI model was trained on EKG data alone, while another model looked at EKG readings and the results of two blood tests commonly used to predict rejection risk. The models were tested on a group of 38 additional heart transplant recipients, and the combined model performed better, correctly identifying 94 percent of patients who were not experiencing rejection. By contrast, the model based on blood tests incorrectly flagged 19 patients as potentially needing a biopsy.

Previous work has shown that blood biomarkers, which measure gene activity linked to cellular rejection and fragments of donor DNA in the recipient's bloodstream, are effective at spotting rejection. However, they frequently produce false-positive test results, which lead to unnecessary biopsies, the researchers said.

NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 122 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation five years in a row, and it continues to have the most No. 1, and top 10, ranked specialties among medical centers in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 400 outpatient locations in the New York City area and Florida. The system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.