The predictive value of machine learning for mortality risk in patients with acute coronary syndromes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are the leading cause of global death. Optimizing mortality risk prediction and early identification of high-risk patients is essential for developing targeted prevention strategies. Many researchers have built machine learning (ML) models to predict the mortality risk in ACS patients. Our meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the predictive value of various ML models in predicting death in ACS patients at different times. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched systematically from database establishment to March 12, 2022 for studies developing or validating at least one ML predictive model for death in ACS patients. We used PROBAST to assess the risk of bias in the reported predictive models and a random-effects model to assess the pooled C-index and accuracy of these models. RESULTS: Fifty papers were included, involving 216 ML prediction models, 119 of which were externally validated. The combined C-index of the ML models in the validation cohort predicting the in-hospital mortality, 30-day mortality, 3- or 6-month mortality, and 1 year or above mortality in ACS patients were 0.8633 (95% CI 0.8467–0.8802), 0.8296 (95% CI 0.8134–0.8462), 0.8205 (95% CI 0.7881–0.8541), and 0.8197 (95% CI 0.8042–0.8354), respectively, with the corresponding combined accuracy of 0.8569 (95% CI 0.8411–0.8715), 0.8282 (95% CI 0.7922–0.8591), 0.7303 (95% CI 0.7184–0.7418), and 0.7837 (95% CI 0.7455–0.8175), indicating that the ML models were relatively excellent in predicting ACS mortality at different times. Furthermore, common predictors of death in ML models included age, sex, systolic blood pressure, serum creatinine, Killip class, heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, blood glucose, and hemoglobin. CONCLUSIONS: The ML models had excellent predictive power for mortality in ACS, and the methodologies may need to be addressed before they can be used in clinical practice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40001-023-01027-4.