Heartflow Receives ACC and AHA Support for Prognostic Value of Coronary Plaque Quantification

Heartflow announced the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association published new scientific statements supporting the prognostic value of quantifying coronary plaque and reinforcing the critical role of the coronary computed tomography angiography plus Heartflow pathway in CAD patient management. The company said, "The ACC's consensus recommendations, published this week in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, highlight the importance of quantitative plaque assessment and underscore the benefits of adopting AI-powered Heartflow Plaque Analysis for personalized, precision cardiac care. The ACC statement elevates plaque analysis from an emerging technology to a defined clinical consideration in CAD management, outlining appropriate patient selection and best practices for interpreting and reporting. In direct alignment with the ACC's call for rigorous quality assurance, reproducible results, and "human in the loop" analysis, Heartflow delivers a differentiated standard for clinical plaque quantification by combining AI-driven analysis with expert quality review. Heartflow Plaque Analysis is the only FDA-cleared, AI-powered plaque quantification tool with 95% agreement to the gold standard, IVUS, using blinded core lab adjudication. This rigor, together with Heartflow's commitment to standardized reporting and advanced algorithmic approaches such as adaptive thresholds, reflects a level of validation and quality oversight consistent with ACC guidance. The AHA statement, published recently in Circulation, reinforces plaque burden and composition as central in managing nonobstructive CAD. The expert authors emphasize that patients with nonobstructive CAD should not be considered low-risk, recognizing that coronary plaque burden, extent, and composition are major determinants of outcomes. Earlier this year, a commission perspective published in The Lancet called for a fundamental shift in managing CAD, urging clinicians to focus on identifying and managing plaque early, before the opportunity for prevention has been lost.4 Together, the scientific statements from ACC and AHA reinforce that broader paradigm shift toward understanding plaque burden, not just artery obstruction, in modern CAD management."