Development and validation of a machine learning model to predict time to renal replacement therapy in patients with...

Predicting time to renal replacement therapy (RRT) is important in patients at high risk for end-stage kidney disease. We developed and validated machine learning models for predicting the time to RRT and compared its accuracy with conventional prediction methods that uses the rate of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline.

Data of adult chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who underwent hemodialysis at Oita University Hospital from April 2016 to March 2021 were extracted from electronic medical records (N = 135). A new machine learning predictor was compared with the established prediction method that uses the eGFR decline rate and the accuracy of the prediction models was determined using the coefficient of determination (R²). The data were preprocessed and split into training and validation datasets. We created multiple machine learning models using the training data and evaluated their accuracy using validation data. Furthermore, we predicted the time to RRT using a conventional prediction method that uses the eGFR decline rate for patients who had measured eGFR three or more times in two years and evaluated its accuracy.

The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression model exhibited moderate accuracy with an R² of 0.60. By contrast, the conventional prediction method was found to be extremely low with an R² of -17.1.

The significance of this study is that it shows that machine learning can predict time to RRT moderately well with continuous values from data at a single time point. This approach outperforms the conventional prediction method that uses eGFR time series data and presents new avenues for CKD treatment.