Distinguishing preeclampsia using the falling scaled slope (FSS) --- a novel photoplethysmographic morphological...

Preeclampsia (PE) presence could lead to hemodynamic changes. Previous research suggested that morphological parameters based on photoplethysmographic pulse waves (PPGW) could help diagnose PE.

To investigate the performance of a novel PPGPW-based parameter, falling scaled slope (FSS), in distinguishing PE. To investigate the advantages of the machine learning algorithm over the conventional statistical methods in the analysis.

Eighty-one pieces of PPGPW data were acquired for the study (PE, n = 44; normotensive, n = 37). The FSS values were calculated and used to construct a PE classifier using the K-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm. A predicted PE state varying from 0 to 1 was also calculated. The classifier's performance in distinguishing PE was evaluated using the ROC and AUC. A comparison was conducted with previously published PPGPW-based models.

Compared to the previous PPGPW-based parameters, FSS showed a better performance in distinguishing PE with an AUC value of 0.924, the best threshold of 0.498 could predict PE with a sensitivity of 84.1% and a specificity of 89.2%. As for the analysis method, training a classifier using the KNN algorithm had an advantage over the conventional statistical methods with the AUC values of 0.878 and 0.749, respectively.

The result indicated that FSS might be an effective tool for identifying PE. Moreover, the machine learning algorithm could further help the data analysis and improve performance. [Figure: see text].