Training a learning vector quantization network using the pattern electroretinography signals

Comparison of Machine Learning Approaches to Improve Diagnosis of Optic Neuropathy Using Photopic Negative Response Measured Using a Handheld Device

The photopic negative response of the full-field electroretinogram (ERG) is reduced in optic neuropathies. However, technical requirements for measurement and poor classification performance have limited widespread clinical application. Recent advances in hardware facilitate efficient clinic-based recording of the full-field ERG. Time series classification, a machine learning approach, may improve classification by using the entire ERG waveform as the input. In this study, full-field ERGs were recorded in 217 eyes (109 optic neuropathy and 108 controls) of 155 subjects. User-defined ERG features including photopic negative response were reduced in optic neuropathy eyes (p < 0.0005, generalized estimating equation models accounting for age). However, classification of optic neuropathy based on user-defined features was only fair with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve ranging between 0.62 and 0.68 and F1 score at the optimal cutoff ranging between 0.30 and 0.33. In comparison, machine learning classifiers using a variety of time series analysis approaches had F1 scores of 0.58–0.76 on a test data set. Time series classifications are promising for improving optic neuropathy diagnosis using ERG waveforms. Larger sample sizes will be important to refine the models.

A novel method for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on pseudo Zernike moment from structural MRI

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the most common type of dementia among older people. The number of patients with AD will grow rapidly each year and AD is the fifth leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older. In recent years, one of the main challenges for medical investigators has been the early diagnosis of patients with AD because an early diagnosis can provide greater opportunities for patients to be eligible for more clinical trials and they will have enough time to plan for future, medical and financial decisions. An established risk factor for AD is mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which is described as a transitional state between normal aging and AD patients. Hence an accurate and reliable diagnosis of MCI can be very effective and helpful for early diagnosis of AD. Therefore in this paper we present a novel and efficient method based on pseudo Zernike moments (PZMs) for the diagnosis of MCI individuals from AD and healthy control (HC) groups using structural MRI. The proposed method uses PZMs to extract discriminative information from the MR images of the AD, MCI, and HC groups. Two types of artificial neural networks, which are based on pattern recognition and learning vector quantization (LVQ) networks, were used to classify the information extracted from the MRIs. We worked with 500 MRIs from the database of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI 1 1.5T). The 1 slice of 500 MRIs used in this study included 180 AD patients, 172 MCI patients, and 148 HC individuals. We selected 50 percent of the MRIs randomly for use in training the classifiers, 25 percent for validation and we used 25 percent for the testing phase. The technique proposed here yielded the best overall classification results between AD and MCI (accuracy 94.88%, sensitivity 94.18%, and specificity 95.55%), and for pairs of the MCI and HC (accuracy 95.59%, sensitivity 95.89% and specificity 95.34%). These results were achieved using maximum order 30 of PZM and the pattern recognition network with the scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) back-propagation training algorithm as a classifier.

Utilization of Discretization method on the diagnosis of optic nerve disease

The optic nerve disease is an important disease that appears commonly in public. In this paper, we propose a hybrid diagnostic system based on discretization (quantization) method and classification algorithms including C4.5 decision tree classifier, artificial neural network (ANN), and least square support vector machine (LSSVM) to diagnose the optic nerve disease from Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) signals with discrete values. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of Discretization method on the classification of optic nerve disease. Since the VEP signals are non-linearly-separable, low classification accuracy can be obtained by classifier algorithms. In order to overcome this problem, we have used the Discretization method as data pre-processing. The proposed method consists of two phases: (i) quantization of VEP signals using Discretization method, and (ii) diagnosis of discretized VEP signals using classification algorithms including C4.5 decision tree classifier, ANN, and LSSVM. The classification accuracies obtained by these hybrid methods (combination of C4.5 decision tree classifier-quantization method, combination of ANN-quantization method, and combination of LSSVM-quantization method) with and without quantization strategy are 84.6-96.92%, 94.20-96.76%, and 73.44-100%, respectively. As can be seen from these results, the best model used to classify the optic nerve disease from VEP signals is obtained for the combination of LSSVM classifier and quantization strategy. The obtained results denote that the proposed method can make an effective interpretation and point out the ability of design of a new intelligent assistance diagnosis system.

Neural network-based diagnosing for optic nerve disease from visual-evoked potential

In this paper, we purpose a diagnostic procedure to identify the optic nerve disease from visual evoked potential (VEP) signals using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Multilayer feed forward ANN trained with a Levenberg Marquart backpropagation algorithm was implemented. The correct classification rate was 96.87% for subjects having optic nerve disease and 96.66% for healthy subjects. The end results are classified as healthy and diseased. Testing results were found to be compliant with the expected results that are derived from the physician's direct diagnosis, angiography, VEP and pattern electroretinography. The stated results show that the proposed method could point out the ability of design of a new intelligent assistance diagnosis system.