Classification of Heart Failure Using Machine Learning: A Comparative Study.
Bryan Chulde-Fernández1, Denisse Enríquez-Ortega1, Cesar Guevara2
1School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Yachay Tech University, Hacienda San José s/n, San Miguel de Urcuquí 100119, Ecuador.
Life (Basel, Switzerland)
|March 27, 2025
Summary
The random forest machine learning model demonstrated high accuracy in identifying heart failure cases, outperforming other algorithms. This highlights the effectiveness of random forest for heart failure prediction.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Data Science
- Machine Learning
Background:
- Heart failure is a significant global health concern requiring accurate diagnostic tools.
- Machine learning offers promising approaches for improving the early detection and management of heart failure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate and compare the performance of various machine learning classification algorithms for heart failure prediction.
- To identify the most effective machine learning model for accurately diagnosing heart failure cases.
Main Methods:
- A dataset of heart failure indicators was used to train and test multiple classification algorithms.
- Algorithms evaluated included logistic regression, random forest, decision tree, K-nearest neighbors, and multilayer perceptron (MLP).
- Performance metrics such as specificity, Area Under the Curve (AUC), and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) were used for comparison.
Main Results:
- The random forest model achieved superior performance with specificity = 0.93, AUC = 0.97, and MCC = 0.83.
- Random forest demonstrated high accuracy, establishing it as the best-performing model in this study.
- K-nearest neighbors and multilayer perceptron (MLP) exhibited lower accuracy rates compared to random forest.
Conclusions:
- The random forest algorithm is highly effective for identifying heart failure cases.
- The study emphasizes the critical role of feature selection, data quality, model choice, and hyperparameter tuning in machine learning for healthcare.
- Machine learning techniques are valuable tools for advancing heart failure diagnosis and management.


