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Autoencoder to Identify Sex-Specific Sub-phenotypes in Alzheimer's Disease Progression Using Longitudinal Electronic Health Records

Meng, W.; Xu, J.; Huang, Y.; Wang, C.; Song, Q.; Ma, A.; Song, L.; Bian, J.; Ma, Q.; Yin, R.

2024-07-08 health informatics
10.1101/2024.07.07.24310055 medRxiv
Show abstract

Alzheimers Disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder strongly influenced by sex differences, with women comprising nearly two-thirds of cases. However, sex-specific progression patterns remain underexplored due to unclear clinical and molecular mechanisms. To address this gap, we developed a temporal autoencoder framework to identify sex-specific AD sub-phenotypes using longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data from the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Consortium. Sequential EHRs were encoded into latent representations and clustered to derive disease states, which were assembled into progression pathways. This approach uncovered five primary sex-stratified sub-phenotypes with distinct trajectories and phenotypic characteristics. Survival and cumulative prevalence analyses further revealed heterogeneous temporal dynamics of AD onset and comorbidity accumulation between female- and male-dominant groups. By integrating deep learning with large-scale real-world data, our framework advances understanding of sex-based heterogeneity in AD progression and provides a scalable tool for early risk stratification, personalized intervention, and improved clinical trial design.

Published in eBioMedicine (predicted rank #9) · training set

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