Testing ChatGPT's Ability to Provide Patient and Physician Information on Aortic Aneurysm

Our objective was to test the ability of ChatGPT 4.0 to provide accurate information for patients and physicians about abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) and to assess its alignment with Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for AAA care.

Fifteen patient-level questions, 37 questions selected to reflect 28 SVS CPGs and 4 questions regarding AAA rupture risk were posed to ChatGPT 4.0. Single responses were recorded and graded for accuracy and quality by ten board-certified vascular surgeons as well as two fellow trainees using a 5-point Likert scale; 1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = fair, 4 = good, and 5 = excellent.

The mean of the means (MoM) accuracy rating across all 15 patient-level questions was 4.4 (SD 0.4, quartile range (QR) 4.2-4.7). ChatGPT 4.0 demonstrated good alignment with SVS practice guidelines (MoM: 4.2, SD: 0.4, QR: 3.9-4.5). The accuracy of responses was consistent across guideline categories; screening or surveillance (4.2), indications for surgery (4.5), preoperative risk assessment (4.5), perioperative coronary revascularization (4.1), and perioperative management (4.2). The generative artificial intelligence bot demonstrated only fair performance in answering the annual AAA rupture risk (MoM: 3.4, SD: 1.2, QR: 2.3-4.3).

ChatGPT 4.0 provided accurate responses to a variety of patient-level questions regarding AAA. Responses were well-aligned with current SVS CPGs except for inaccuracies in the risk of AAA rupture at varying diameters. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence bots presents an opportunity for study of applications in patient education and to determine their ability to augment the vascular specialist's knowledge base.