CADICA: An Advancement in Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosis with Over 6,000 Accessible Images

Researchers from the University of Málaga (UMA), in collaboration with the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital and as part of the CIBER for Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV), have developed CADICA, a publicly accessible dataset offering over 6,000 images of invasive coronary angiographies. This database serves as a valuable resource for the scientific community and clinical staff, facilitating earlier and more accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

The research focuses on coronary angiography, an invasive X-ray examination that allows visualization of the coronary arteries through the insertion of a catheter with radiocontrast. With these real-time images, specialists can assess myocardial health.

CADICA, the result of joint efforts by the Institute of Software Technology and Engineering (ITIS UMA) and the Biomedical Research Institute of Málaga (IBIMA), overcomes the barrier of limited accessible data that has traditionally hindered research in this field.

Supported by initiatives such as the FEDER Project of the Andalusian Government and UMA’s Young Researchers program, the project has been awarded the III Unicaja Prize for Innovation in Biomedicine and Health. Besides training specialists in disease assessment, CADICA is valuable for developing AI-assisted diagnostic systems.

Reference: Jiménez-Partinen, A., Molina-Cabello, M. A., Thurnhofer-Hemsi, K., Palomo, E. J., Rodríguez-Capitán, J., Molina-Ramos, A. I., & Jiménez-Navarro, M. (2024). CADICA: A new dataset for coronary artery disease detection by using invasive coronary angiography. Expert Systems, e13708. https://doi.org/10.1111/exsy.13708