LONDON -- Some hearts are round, others more elongated, and as it turns out, these differences aren't just simple curiosities. Scientists have discovered that your heart's unique shape could be a crystal ball for predicting future health problems.

Published in Nature Communications, researchers analyzed detailed heart scans from over 45,000 participants to create the first comprehensive "heart shape atlas," revealing that cardiac geometry could be as important as traditional measures like heart size and blood pressure in predicting health outcomes.

The study, led by researchers from multiple institutions in the United Kingdom, used advanced artificial intelligence and imaging techniques to examine the intricate variations in heart shape across thousands of participants in the UK Biobank project. Their findings suggest that seemingly subtle differences in cardiac geometry could help identify individuals at higher risk for conditions like atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat) and heart failure before traditional warning signs appear.