Interpretable Machine Learning Model to Predict Bone Cement Leakage in Percutaneous Vertebral Augmentation for...

Retrospective study.

Our objective is to create comprehensible machine learning (ML) models that can forecast bone cement leakage in percutaneous vertebral augmentation (PVA) for individuals with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF) while also identifying the associated risk factors.

We incorporated data from patients (n = 425) which underwent PVA. To predict cement leakage, we devised six models based on a variety of parameters. Evaluate and juxtapose the predictive performances relied on measures of discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) methodology was used to interpret model and evaluate the risk factors associated with cement leakage.

The occurrence rate of cement leakage was established at 50.4%. A binary logistic regression analysis identified cortical disruption (OR 6.880, 95% CI 4.209-11.246), the basivertebral foramen sign (OR 2.142, 95% CI 1.303-3.521), the fracture type (OR 1.683, 95% CI 1.083-2.617), and the volume of bone cement (OR 1.198, 95% CI 1.070-1.341) as independent predictors of cement leakage. The XGBoost model outperformed all others in predicting cement leakage in the testing set, with AUC of .8819, accuracy of .8025, recall score of .7872, F1 score of .8315, and a precision score of .881. Several important factors related to cement leakage were drawn based on the analysis of SHAP values and their clinical significance.

The ML based predictive model demonstrated significant accuracy in forecasting bone cement leakage for patients with OVCF undergoing PVA. When combined with SHAP, ML facilitated a personalized prediction and offered a visual interpretation of feature importance.