Prediction of ambulatory outcome in patients with corona radiata infarction using deep learning

Deep learning (DL) is an advanced machine learning approach used in diverse areas such as bioinformatics, image analysis, and natural language processing. Here, using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data obtained at early stages of infarcts, we attempted to develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the ambulatory outcome of corona radiata infarction at six months after onset. We retrospectively recruited 221 patients with corona radiata infarcts. A favorable outcome of ambulatory function was defined as a functional ambulation category (FAC) score of ≥ 4 (able to walk without a guardian’s assistance), and a poor outcome of ambulatory function was defined as an FAC score of < 4. We used a CNN algorithm. Of the included subjects, 69.7% (n = 154) were assigned randomly to the training set and the remaining 30.3% (n = 67) were assigned to the validation set to measure the model performance. The area under the curve was 0.751 (95% CI 0.649–0.852) for the prediction of ambulatory function with the validation dataset using the CNN model. We demonstrated that a CNN model trained using brain MRIs captured at an early stage after corona radiata infarction could be helpful in predicting long-term ambulatory outcomes.