Machine learning based finite element analysis for personalized prediction of pressure injury risk in patients with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Background and Objective

Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), are prone to pressure injury (PI) in the soft tissues of buttocks. Early prediction of PI holds the potential to reduce the occurrence and progression of PI. This study proposes a machine learning model to predict soft tissue stress/strain and evaluate PI risk in SCI patients.

Methods

Based on the standard database from parametric models of buttock, the biomechanical response of soft tissues and risk factors affecting PI were analyzed. A comprehensive assessment of multiple machine-learning methods was performed to predict the risk of PI, the selected optimal model is explained locally and globally using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP).

Results

The proposed hybrid model for predicting PI consists of a backpropagation neural network and Extreme Gradient Boosting, performed the coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.977.

Conclusion

The model exhibits accurate performance which may be considered as the ideal method for predicting PI. Furthermore, it can be used with other health-monitoring equipment to improve the quality of patients with SCI or other dysfunctional diseases.