Evidence Hub

An algorithm for the classification of mRNA patterns in eosinophilic esophagitis: Integration of machine learning

Benjamin F. Sallis, L. Erkert, S. Moñino-Romero, U. Acar, Rina Wu, L. Konnikova, W. Lexmond, M. Hamilton et al.

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2017

29 citations

Abstract

Background: Diagnostic evaluation of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) remains difficult, particularly the assessment of the patient's allergic status. Objective: This study sought to establish an automated medical algorithm to assist in the evaluation of EoE. Methods: Machine learning techniques were used to establish a diagnostic probability score for EoE, p(EoE), based on esophageal mRNA transcript patterns from biopsies of patients with EoE, gastroesophageal reflux disease and controls. Dimensionality reduction in the training set established weighted factors, which were confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Following weighted factor analysis, p(EoE) was determined by random forest classification. Accuracy was tested in an external test set, and predictive power was assessed with equivocal patients. Esophageal IgE production was quantified with epsilon germ line (IGHE) transcripts and correlated with serum IgE and the Th2‐type mRNA profile to establish an IGHE score for tissue allergy. Results: In the primary analysis, a 3‐class statistical model generated a p(EoE) score based on common characteristics of the inflammatory EoE profile. A p(EoE) ≥ 25 successfully identified EoE with high accuracy (sensitivity: 90.9%, specificity: 93.2%, area under the curve: 0.985) and improved diagnosis of equivocal cases by 84.6%. The p(EoE) changed in response to therapy. A secondary analysis loop in EoE patients defined an IGHE score of ≥37.5 for a patient subpopulation with increased…

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free