TITLE:
Application of Biochemical Tests and Machine Learning Techniques to Diagnose and Evaluate Liver Disease
AUTHORS:
Shamima Akter, Hossain Uddin Shekhar, Sharif Akhteruzzaman
KEYWORDS:
Hepatitis, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Bilirubin, Transaminases, Cholestasis, Machine Learning, Random Forest, CART
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.12 No.6,
June
25,
2021
ABSTRACT: Background: The liver function tests (LFTs) remain one of the
most commonly employed clinical measures for the diagnosis of hepatobiliary
disease. LFTs sometimes referred to as hepatic panel help to determine the
health of liver, monitor the progression of a disease and measure the severity
of a disease particularly scarring or cirrhosis of the liver. Aims: In
this study, we present a new approach to evaluate the natural progression of
liver disease through the assessment of eight biochemical parameters:
serum total bilirubin (TB), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate
aminotransferase (AST), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), albumin
(ALB), albumin/globulin (A/G) ratio, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) as well as
two machine learning (ML) tools—Random Forest and CART to substantive the outcome. Methods: The study was carried out in a
total of 100 subjects which included healthy controls (group I-25 patients),
patients with acute hepatitis (group II-25 patients), chronic hepatitis (group
III-25 patients) and hepatocellular carcinoma (group IV-25 patients) applying
both biochemical and Machine Learning methods. Results: Of the eight
parameters tested, all except ALP (p = 0.426), showed an overall discriminatory
ability as judged by one-factor analysis of variance (p Conclusion: Acute hepatitis
(group II) shows a higher level of AST, ALT and ALP compared to chronic
hepatitis (group III) and hepatocellular carcinoma (group IV). Two machine learning
algorithms also predicted and supported the same biochemical results by
correctly classifying liver disease patients. We also recommend that the AFP
test can be performed if hepatocellular carcinoma is suspected.