Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences have validated a new artificial intelligence tool designed to help veterinarians track heart disease in dogs with greater consistency. The study, recently published in PLOS ONE, evaluates RadAnalyzer, a web- and smartphone-based application that automatically measures vertebral heart size and vertebral left atrial size from canine chest radiographs.
Veterinarians traditionally rely on chest radiographs to monitor subtle changes in heart size to determine when treatment should begin. However, manual measurements can vary between clinicians, making it difficult to distinguish actual disease progression from differences in human interpretation. The new study found that RadAnalyzer’s measurements closely matched those made by a highly trained observer, using a dataset of more than 1,000 canine radiographs.
The technology originated through Texas A&M’s Aggies Invent program, where students from various disciplines collaborate to solve real-world problems. During one challenge, graduate student Thomas Reyes and veterinary student Tabitha Baibos-Reyes developed a prototype to automate heart-size measurements. The tool has since evolved into a clinical aid that offers consistent, AI-assisted cardiac measurements.
Dr. Sonya Gordon, a professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and the principal investigator of the study, emphasized that the tool is intended to support rather than replace veterinary professionals. “Most of the AI we’re talking about isn’t a black box,” Gordon said. “It’s really a tool that helps people do their jobs better. It doesn’t replace us — it helps us.”
