Refractive Index of Hemoglobin Analysis: A Comparison of Alternating Conditional Expectations and Computational Intelligence Models

[Image: see text] Hemoglobin is one of the most important blood elements, and its optical properties will determine all other optical properties of human blood. Since the refractive index (RI) of hemoglobin plays a vital role as a non-invasive indicator of some illnesses, accurate calculation of it would be of great importance. Moreover, measurement of the RI of hemoglobin in the laboratory is time-consuming and expensive; thus, developing a smart approach to estimate this parameter is necessary. In this research, four viable strategies were used to make a quantitative correlation between the RI of hemoglobin and its influencing parameters including the concentration, wavelength, and temperature. First, alternating conditional expectations (ACE), a statistical approach, was employed to generate a correlation to predict the RI of hemoglobin. Then, three different optimized intelligent techniques—optimized neural network (ONN), optimized fuzzy inference system (OFIS), and optimized support vector regression (OSVR)—were used to model the RI. A bat-inspired (BA) algorithm was embedded in the formulation of intelligent models to obtain the optimal values of weights and biases of an artificial neural network, membership functions of the fuzzy inference system, and free parameters of support vector regression. The coefficient of determination, root-mean-square error, average absolute relative error, and symmetric mean absolute percentage error for each of the ACE, ONN, OFIS, and OSVR were found as the measure of each model’s accuracy. Results showed that ACE and optimized models (ONN, OFIS, and OSVR) have promising results in the estimation of hemoglobin’s RI. Collectively, ACE outperformed ONN, OFIS, and OSVR, while sensitivity analysis indicated that the concentration, wavelength, and, lastly, temperature would have the highest impact on the RI.