Development and Validation of DIANA (Diabetes Novel Subgroup Assessment tool): A web-based precision medicine tool to determine type 2 diabetes endotype membership and predict individuals at risk of microvascular disease.

backgroundPrevious research has identified four distinct endotypes of type 2 diabetes in Asian Indians, which include Severe Insulin Deficient Diabetes (SIDD), Combined Insulin Resistant and Deficient Diabetes (CIRDD), Insulin Resistance and Obese Diabetes (IROD), and Mild Age-related Diabetes (MARD). DIANA (Diabetes Novel Subgroup Assessment) is an online precision medicine tool that can predict endotype membership of type 2 diabetes and individual risk for retinopathy and nephropathy. METHODOLOGY: The DIANA tool determines subgroup membership using a machine learning model (support vector machine) on T2D subgroups in the Asian Indian population. We used a support vector machine (SVM) model to classify type 2 diabetes patient endotypes, and the model is trained based on k-fold cross-validation. Its performance was compared with an algorithm determined based on conditional pre-determined cut-offs and weights for each clinical feature [age at diagnosis, BMI, waist, HbA1c, Serum Triglycerides, HDL-Cholesterol, (C-peptide fasting, C-peptide stimulated) - optional. This study employed local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to demystify the endotype prediction model. A random forest model was built to assess an individual's risk for nephropathy and retinopathy based on individual risk algorithms.

findingsThe SVM model has relatively high accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, and precision values compared to conditional pre-determined cut-offs 98% vs 63.6%, 99.8% vs 88%, 98.5% vs 65.1%, and 98.7% vs 63.4%. Clinician face value validation of the prediction by the SVM model reported an accuracy, specificity, sensitivity and precision compared to conditional pre-determined cut-offs 97% vs 85%, 95.3% vs 63%, 95.8% vs 73%, and 98.9% vs 66.9%. Additionally, our study demonstrated the impact of features on ML models through LIME and SHAP analyses. The accuracy of the random forest risk prediction model for nephropathy and retinopathy was 89.6% (p < 0.05) and 78.4% (p < 0.05), respectively.

conclusionWe conclude that, DIANA is an accurate, clinically explainable AI tool that clinicians can use to make informed decisions on risk assessment and provide precision management to individuals with new-onset type 2 diabetes.