Investigating Artificial Intelligence Models for Predicting Joint Pain from Serum Biochemistry

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The study used machine learning models to predict the clinical outcome with various attributes or when the models chose features based on their algorithms. METHODS: Patients who presented to an orthopedic outpatient department with joint swelling or myalgia were included in the study. A proforma collected clinical information on age, gender, uric acid, C-reactive protein, and complete blood count/liver function test/renal function test parameters. Machine learning decision models (Random Forest and Gradient Boosted) were evaluated with the selected features/attributes. To categorize input data into outputs of indications of joint discomfort, multilayer perceptron and radial basis function-neural networks were used. RESULTS: The random forest decision model outperformed with 97% accuracy and minimum errors to anticipate joint pain from input attributes. For predicted classifications, the multilayer perceptron fared better with an accuracy of 98% as compared to the radial basis function. Multilayer perceptron achieved the following normalized relevance: 100% (uric acid), 10.3% (creatinine), 9.8% (AST), 5.4% (lymphocytes), and 5% (C-reactive protein) for having joint pain. Uric acid has the highest normalized relevance for predicting joint pain. CONCLUSION: The earliest artificial intelligence-based detection of joint pain will aid in the prevention of more serious orthopedic complications.