Refinement of machine learning arterial waveform models for predicting blood loss in canines

Hemorrhage remains a leading cause of death in civilian and military trauma. Hemorrhages also extend to military working dogs, who can experience injuries similar to those of the humans they work alongside. Unfortunately, current physiological monitoring is often inadequate for early detection of hemorrhage. Here, we evaluate if features extracted from the arterial waveform can allow for early hemorrhage prediction and improved intervention in canines.

In this effort, we extracted more than 1,900 features from an arterial waveform in canine hemorrhage datasets prior to hemorrhage, during hemorrhage, and during a shock hold period. Different features were used as input to decision tree machine learning (ML) model architectures to track three model predictors-total blood loss volume, estimated percent blood loss, and area under the time versus hemorrhaged blood volume curve.

ML models were successfully developed for total and estimated percent blood loss, with the total blood loss having a higher correlation coefficient. The area predictors were unsuccessful at being directly predicted by decision tree ML models but could be calculated indirectly from the ML prediction models for blood loss. Overall, the area under the hemorrhage curve had the highest sensitivity for detecting hemorrhage at approximately 4 min after hemorrhage onset, compared to more than 45 min before detection based on mean arterial pressure.

ML methods successfully tracked hemorrhage and provided earlier prediction in canines, potentially improving hemorrhage detection and objectifying triage for veterinary medicine. Further, its use can potentially be extended to human use with proper training datasets.