Abstract Rationale Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare and progressive disease, where the guideline-recommended diagnostic confirmation is via right heart catheterization (RHC). However, due to non-specific symptomology, patients often experience delays in diagnosis that potentially impact disease outcomes. We sought to develop a machine learning (ML) based approach for early and appropriate detection of PAH. Methods Three cohorts were derived from Mayo Clinic electronic health record (EHR): confirmed PAH (N = 1,169), No PH (N = 11,600) and Other PH (Group 2-5 PH, N = 817), based on 2022 ESC/ERS guidelines. The study index was defined as the earliest diagnosis dates for PH cohorts (PAH and T wave peak in V1 and ANA level in PAH vs other PH cohort. The top feature impacting model with ECHO was tricuspid regurgitation velocity followed by heart failure and right atrial pressure for the PH vs no PH; and mean blood pressure and left ventricular diameter in the PAH vs other PH cohort. Figure 1: Model performance in the two-step sequential approach PR-AUC=Precision Recall-Area Under Curve Conclusion This study demonstrates that ML models can aid in the identification of PAH in symptomatic patient populations. While ECG can identify patients for further testing, ECHO can further increase the accuracy and the need to refer patients to RHC for confirming diagnosis of PAH. This abstract is funded by: Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA
Thakur et al. (Fri,) studied this question.