TT@MHA: A machine learning-based webpage tool for discriminating thalassemia trait from microcytic hypochromic anemia...

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia trait (TT) are the most common causes of microcytic hypochromic anemia (MHA) and are endemic in lower resource settings and rural areas with poor medical infrastructure. Accurate discrimination between IDA and TT is an essential issue for MHA patients. Although various discriminant formulas have been reported, distinguishing between IDA and TT is still a challenging problem due to the diversity of anemic populations.

We retrospectively collected laboratory data from 798 MHA patients. High proportions of α-TT (43.33 %) and TT concomitant with IDA (TT&IDA) patients (14.04 %) were found among TT patients. Five machine learning (ML) approaches, including Liner SVC (L-SVC), support vector machine learning (SVM), Extreme gradient boosting (XGB), Logistic Regression (LR), and Random Forest (RF), were applied to develop a discriminant model. Performance was assessed and compared with six existing discriminant formulas.

The RF model was chosen as the discriminant algorithm, namely TT@MHA. TT@MHA was tested in an interlaboratory cohort with a sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC of 91.91 %, 91.00 %, 91.53 %, and 0.942, respectively. A webpage tool of TT@MHA (https://dxonline.deepwise.com/prediction/index.html?baseUrl=%2Fapi%2F&id=26408&topicName=undefined&from=share&platformType=wisdom) was developed to facilitate the healthcare providers in rural areas.

The ML-based TT@MHA algorithm, with high sensitivity and specificity, could help discriminate TT patients from MHA patients, especially in populations with high proportions of α-TT patients and TT&IDA patients. Moreover, a user-friendly webpage tool for TT@MHA could facilitate healthcare providers in rural areas where advanced technologies are not accessible.