scholarly journals Multiparametric Microstructural MRI and Machine Learning Classification Yields High Diagnostic Accuracy in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Proof of Concept

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Kocar ◽  
Anna Behler ◽  
Albert C. Ludolph ◽  
Hans-Peter Müller ◽  
Jan Kassubek

The potential of multiparametric quantitative neuroimaging has been extensively discussed as a diagnostic tool in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In the past, the integration of multimodal, quantitative data into a useful diagnostic classifier was a major challenge. With recent advances in the field, machine learning in a data driven approach is a potential solution: neuroimaging biomarkers in ALS are mainly observed in the cerebral microstructure, with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and texture analysis as promising approaches. We set out to combine these neuroimaging markers as age-corrected features in a machine learning model with a cohort of 502 subjects, divided into 404 patients with ALS and 98 healthy controls. We calculated a linear support vector classifier (SVC) which is a very robust model and then verified the results with a multilayer perceptron (MLP)/neural network. Both classifiers were able to separate ALS patients from controls with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showing an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87–0.88 (“good”) for the SVC and 0.88–0.91 (“good” to “excellent”) for the MLP. Among the coefficients of the SVC, texture data contributed the most to a correct classification. We consider these results as a proof of concept that demonstrated the power of machine learning in the application of multiparametric quantitative neuroimaging data to ALS.

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1944
Author(s):  
Kuo-Hsuan Chang ◽  
Chia-Ni Lin ◽  
Chiung-Mei Chen ◽  
Rong-Kuo Lyu ◽  
Chun-Che Chu ◽  
...  

Currently, there is no objective biomarker to indicate disease progression and monitor therapeutic effects for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study aimed to identify plasma biomarkers for ALS using a targeted metabolomics approach. Plasma levels of 185 metabolites in 36 ALS patients and 36 age- and sex-matched normal controls (NCs) were quantified using an assay combining liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and direct flow injection. Identified candidates were correlated with the scores of the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-r). Support vector machine (SVM) learning applied to selected metabolites was used to differentiate ALS and NC subjects. Forty-four metabolites differed significantly between ALS and NC subjects. Significant correlations with ALSFRS-r score were seen in 23 metabolites. Six of them showing potential to distinguish ALS from NC—asymmetric dimethylarginine (area under the curve (AUC): 0.829), creatinine (AUC: 0.803), methionine (AUC: 0.767), PC-acyl-alkyl C34:2 (AUC: 0.808), C34:2 (AUC: 0.763), and PC-acyl-acyl C42:2 (AUC: 0.751)—were selected for machine learning. The SVM algorithm using selected metabolites achieved good performance, with an AUC of 0.945. In conclusion, our findings indicate that a panel of metabolites were correlated with disease severity of ALS, which could be potential biomarkers for monitoring ALS progression and therapeutic effects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiba Abuelgasim Fadlelmoula Abdelrahman ◽  
Shiho Ubukata ◽  
Keita Ueda ◽  
Gaku Fujimoto ◽  
Naoya Oishi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indices provide quantitative measures of white matter microstructural changes following traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, there is still insufficient evidence for their use as predictive measures. Recently, there has been growing interest in using machine learning (ML) approaches to aid the diagnosis of many neurological and psychiatric illnesses including TBI. The aim of this study is to examine the potential of using multiple DTI indices in conjunction with ML to automate the classification of healthy subjects and patients with TBI across a spectrum of TBI severity.Methods: Participants were adult patients with chronic TBI (n=26) and age and gender-matched healthy controls (n=26). DTI images were obtained from all the participants. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis was applied to the DTI images. Classification models were built using principle component analysis (PCA) and support vector machines (SVM). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and area under the curve (AUC) were used to assess the classification performance of the different classifiers.Results: The whole-brain white matter TBSS analyses showed significantly decreased FA, as well as increased MD, AD, and RD in TBI patients compared with healthy controls (all p-value < 0.01). The PCA and SVM-based ML classification using combined DTI indices classified TBI patients and healthy controls with the accuracy of 90.5% with an area under the curve (AUC) of 93 +/- 0.09.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the potential of a joint DTI and ML approach for objective classification of TBI patients and healthy controls.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S200-S200
Author(s):  
Alessandro Pigoni ◽  
Dominic Dwyer ◽  
Letizia Squarcina ◽  
Stefan Borgwardt ◽  
Benedicto Crespo-Facorro ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Machine learning classifications of first-episode psychosis (FEP) using neuroimaging have predominantly analyzed brain volumes. Some studies examined cortical thickness data, but most of them have used parcellation approaches with data from single sites, which limits claims of generalizability. To address these limitations, we conducted a large-scale, multi-site analysis of cortical thickness comparing parcellations and vertex-wise approaches. By leveraging the multi-site nature of the study, we further investigated how different demographical and site-dependent variables affected predictions. Finally, we assessed relationships between the predictions and clinical variables. Methods 428 subjects (147 females, mean age 27.14) with FEP and 448 (230 females, mean age 27.06) healthy controls were enrolled in 8 centers by the ClassiFEP group. All subjects underwent a structural MRI (sMRI) session and were clinically assessed. Cortical thickness parcellation (68 areas) and full cortical maps (20484 vertices) were extracted. Supervised (linear Support Vector Machine) classification was used to differentiate FEP from HC, within a repeated nested Cross-Validation (CV) framework through the NeuroMiner software. In both inner and outer CVs, a 10-fold CV cycle was employed. We performed repeated nested CV at the outer cross-validation cycle by randomly permuting the participants within their groups (10 permutations) and repeating the CV cycle for each of these permutations. As feature preprocessing, regression of covariates (age, sex, and site), Principal Component Analysis and Scaling were applied. All preprocessing steps were implemented within the CV. Further analyses were conducted by stratifying the sample for MRI scanner, sex and by performing random resampling with increasingly reduced sample sizes. Results Vertex-wise thickness maps outperformed parcellation-based methods with a balanced accuracy (BAC) of 66.2% and an Area Under the Curve of 72%, compared to a BAC of 59% and an Area Under the Curve of 61% obtained with the ROI-based approach. The two BACs were significantly different based on the McNemar’s Test. By stratifying our sample for MRI scanner, we increased the overall BAC to more than 70% and we also increased generalizability across sites. Temporal areas resulted the most influential regions in the classification. The predictive decision scores presented significant correlations with age at onset, duration of treatment and the presence of affective vs non-affective psychosis. Discussion Cortical thickness could represent a valid measure to classify FEP subjects, showing temporal areas as potential markers in the early stages of psychosis. The assessment of site-dependent variables allowed us to increase the across-site generalizability of the model, thus attempting to address an important machine learning limitation, especially in the framework of large multi-site cohort and big data analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 992
Author(s):  
Martina Barchitta ◽  
Andrea Maugeri ◽  
Giuliana Favara ◽  
Paolo Marco Riela ◽  
Giovanni Gallo ◽  
...  

Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) were at higher risk of worsen prognosis and mortality. Here, we aimed to evaluate the ability of the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II) to predict the risk of 7-day mortality, and to test a machine learning algorithm which combines the SAPS II with additional patients’ characteristics at ICU admission. We used data from the “Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in Intensive Care Units” network. Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithm was used to classify 3782 patients according to sex, patient’s origin, type of ICU admission, non-surgical treatment for acute coronary disease, surgical intervention, SAPS II, presence of invasive devices, trauma, impaired immunity, antibiotic therapy and onset of HAI. The accuracy of SAPS II for predicting patients who died from those who did not was 69.3%, with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.678. Using the SVM algorithm, instead, we achieved an accuracy of 83.5% and AUC of 0.896. Notably, SAPS II was the variable that weighted more on the model and its removal resulted in an AUC of 0.653 and an accuracy of 68.4%. Overall, these findings suggest the present SVM model as a useful tool to early predict patients at higher risk of death at ICU admission.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 3193-3201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yajuan Li ◽  
Xialing Huang ◽  
Yuwei Xia ◽  
Liling Long

Abstract Purpose To explore the value of CT-enhanced quantitative features combined with machine learning for differential diagnosis of renal chromophobe cell carcinoma (chRCC) and renal oncocytoma (RO). Methods Sixty-one cases of renal tumors (chRCC = 44; RO = 17) that were pathologically confirmed at our hospital between 2008 and 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients had undergone preoperative enhanced CT scans including the corticomedullary (CMP), nephrographic (NP), and excretory phases (EP) of contrast enhancement. Volumes of interest (VOIs), including lesions on the images, were manually delineated using the RadCloud platform. A LASSO regression algorithm was used to screen the image features extracted from all VOIs. Five machine learning classifications were trained to distinguish chRCC from RO by using a fivefold cross-validation strategy. The performance of the classifier was mainly evaluated by areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and accuracy. Results In total, 1029 features were extracted from CMP, NP, and EP. The LASSO regression algorithm was used to screen out the four, four, and six best features, respectively, and eight features were selected when CMP and NP were combined. All five classifiers had good diagnostic performance, with area under the curve (AUC) values greater than 0.850, and support vector machine (SVM) classifier showed a diagnostic accuracy of 0.945 (AUC 0.964 ± 0.054; sensitivity 0.999; specificity 0.800), showing the best performance. Conclusions Accurate preoperative differential diagnosis of chRCC and RO can be facilitated by a combination of CT-enhanced quantitative features and machine learning.


The increased usage of the Internet and social networks allowed and enabled people to express their views, which have generated an increasing attention lately. Sentiment Analysis (SA) techniques are used to determine the polarity of information, either positive or negative, toward a given topic, including opinions. In this research, we have introduced a machine learning approach based on Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes (NB) and Random Forest (RF) classifiers, to find and classify extreme opinions in Arabic reviews. To achieve this, a dataset of 1500 Arabic reviews was collected from Google Play Store. In addition, a two-stage Classification process was applied to classify the reviews. In the first stage, we built a binary classifier to sort out positive from negative reviews. In the second stage, however we applied a binary classification mechanism based on a set of proposed rules that distinguishes extreme positive from positive reviews, and extreme negative from negative reviews. Four major experiments were conducted with a total of 10 different sub experiments to fulfill the two-stage process using different X-validation schemas and Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency feature selection method. Obtained results have indicated that SVM was the best during the first stage classification with 30% testing data, and NB was the best with 20% testing data. The results of the second stage classification indicated that SVM has scored better results in identifying extreme positive reviews when dealing with the positive dataset with an overall accuracy of 68.7% and NB showed better accuracy results in identifying extreme negative reviews when dealing with the negative dataset, with an overall accuracy of 72.8%.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuqiang Wang ◽  
Yong Hu ◽  
Yanyan Shen ◽  
Hanxiong Li

In this study, we propose an automated framework that combines diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics with machine learning algorithms to accurately classify control groups and groups with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) in the spinal cord. The comparison between selected voxel-based classification and mean value-based classification were performed. A support vector machine (SVM) classifier using a selected voxel-based dataset produced an accuracy of 95.73%, sensitivity of 93.41% and specificity of 98.64%. The efficacy of each index of diffusion for classification was also evaluated. Using the proposed approach, myelopathic areas in CSM are detected to provide an accurate reference to assist spine surgeons in surgical planning in complicated cases.


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