A machine learning-derived risk score to predict left ventricular diastolic dysfunction from clinical cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging

Introduction The evaluation of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) by clinical cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) remains a challenge. We aimed to train and evaluate a machine-learning (ML) algorithm for the assessment of LVDD by clinical CMR variables and to investigate its prognostic value for predicting hospitalized heart failure and all-cause mortality. Methods LVDD was characterized by echocardiography following the ASE guidelines. Eight demographic and nineteen common clinical CMR variables including delayed enhancement were used to train Random Forest models with a Bayesian optimizer. The model was evaluated using bootstrap and five-fold cross-validation. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) was utilized to evaluate the model performance. An ML risk score was used to stratify the risk of heart failure hospitalization and all-cause mortality. Results A total of 606 consecutive patients underwent CMR and echocardiography within 7 days for cardiovascular disease evaluation. LVDD was present in 303 subjects by echocardiography. The performance of the ML algorithm was good using the CMR variables alone with an AUC of 0.868 (95% CI: 0.811-0.917), which was improved by combining with demographic data yielding an AUC 0.895 (95% CI: 0.845-0.939). The algorithm performed well in an independent validation cohort with AUC 0.810 (0.731-0.874). Subjects with higher ML scores (>0.4121) were associated with increased adjusted hazard ratio for a composite outcome than subjects with lower ML scores (1.72, 95% confidence interval 1.09-2.71). Discussion An ML algorithm using variables derived from clinical CMR is effective in identifying patients with LVDD and providing prognostication for adverse clinical outcomes.