Beyond Accuracy: Investigating the Potential Clinical Utility of Predicting Functional Dependency and Severe Disability or Death in Successfully Reperfused Patients using Machine Learning

ObjectivesMachine learning (ML) has been demonstrated to improve the prediction of functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. However, its value in a specific clinical use case has not been investigated. Aim of this study was to assess the clinical utility of ML models with respect to predicting functional impairment and severe disability or death considering its potential value as a decision-support tool in an acute stroke workflow. Materials and MethodsPatients (n=1317) from a retrospective, non-randomized observational registry treated with Mechanical Thrombectomy (MT) were included. The final dataset of patients who underwent successful recanalization (TICI [≥] 2b) (n=932) was split in order to develop ML-based prediction models using data of (n=745, 80%) patients. Subsequently, the models were tested on the remaining patient data (n=187, 20%). For comparison, baseline algorithms using majority class prediction, SPAN-100 score, PRE score, and Stroke-TPI score were implemented. The ML methods included eight different algorithms (e.g. Support Vector Machines and Random forests), stacked ensemble method and tabular neural networks. Prediction of modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 3-6 (primary analysis) and mRS 5-6 (secondary analysis) at 3 months was performed using 25 baseline variables available at patient admission. ML models were assessed with respect to their ability for discrimination, calibration and clinical utility (decision curve analysis). ResultsAnalyzed patients (n=932) showed a median age of 74.7 (IQR 62.7-82.4) years with (n=461, 49.5%) being female. ML methods performed better than clinical scores with stacked ensemble method providing the best overall performance including an F1-score of 0.75 {+/-} 0.01, an ROC-AUC of 0.81 {+/-} 0.00, AP score of 0.81 {+/-} 0.01, MCC of 0.48 {+/-} 0.02, and ECE of 0.06 {+/-} 0.01 for prediction of mRS 3-6, and an F1-score of 0.57 {+/-} 0.02, an ROC-AUC of 0.79 {+/-} 0.01, AP score of 0.54 {+/-} 0.02, MCC of 0.39 {+/-} 0.03, and ECE of 0.19 {+/-} 0.01 for prediction of mRS 5-6. Decision curve analyses suggested highest mean net benefit of 0.09 {+/-} 0.02 at a-priori defined threshold (0.8) for the stacked ensemble method in primary analysis (mRS 3-6). Across all methods, higher mean net benefits were achieved for optimized probability thresholds but with considerably reduced certainty (threshold probabilities 0.24-0.47). For the secondary analysis (mRS 5-6), none of the ML models achieved a positive net benefit for the a-priori threshold probability 0.8. ConclusionsThe clinical utility of ML prediction models in a decision-support scenario aimed at yielding a high certainty for prediction of functional dependency (mRS 3-6) is marginal and not evident for the prediction of severe disability or death (mRS 5-6). Hence, using those models for patient exclusion cannot be recommended and future research should evaluate utility gains after incorporating more advanced imaging parameters.