Raman spectroscopy as a non-invasive diagnostic technique for endometriosis

Endometriosis is a condition in which the endometrium, the layer of tissue that usually covers the inside of the uterus, grows outside the uterus. One of its severe effects is sub-fertility. The exact reason for endometriosis is still unknown and under investigation. Tracking the symptoms is not sufficient for diagnosing the disease. A successful diagnosis can only be made using laparoscopy. During the disease, the amount of some molecules (i.e., proteins, antigens) changes in the blood. Raman spectroscopy provides information about biochemicals without using dyes or external labels. In this study, Raman spectroscopy is used as a non-invasive diagnostic method for endometriosis. The Raman spectra of 94 serum samples acquired from 49 patients and 45 healthy individuals were compared for this study. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), k- Nearest Neighbors (kNN), and Support Vector Machines (SVM) were used in the analysis. According to the results (using 80 measurements for training and 14 measurements for the test set), it was found that kNN-weighted gave the best classification model with sensitivity and specificity values of 80.5% and 89.7%, respectively. Testing the model with unseen data yielded a sensitivity value of 100% and a specificity value of 100%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in which Raman spectroscopy was used in combination with PCA and classification algorithms as a non-invasive method applied on blood sera for the diagnosis of endometriosis.