Distal Symmetric Polyneuropathy Identification in Type 2 Diabetes Subjects: A Random Forest Approach

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing worldwide, causing health and economic implications. One of the principal microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes is Distal Symmetric Polyneuropathy (DSPN), affecting 42.6% of the population in Mexico. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find out the predictors of this complication. The dataset contained a total number of 140 subjects, including clinical and paraclinical features. A multivariate analysis was constructed using Boruta as a feature selection method and Random Forest as a classification algorithm applying the strategy of K-Folds Cross Validation and Leave One Out Cross Validation. Then, the models were evaluated through a statistical analysis based on sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve (AUC) and receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The results present significant values obtained by the model with this approach, presenting 67% of AUC with only three features as predictors. It is possible to conclude that this proposed methodology can classify patients with DSPN, obtaining a preliminary computer-aided diagnosis tool for the clinical area in helping to identify the diagnosis of DSPN.