A Novel Machine-Learning Algorithm to Predict Stone Recurrence with 24-Hour Urine Data

• Published in: Journal of endourology Vol. 38; no. 8; p. 809
• Main Authors: Shee, Kevin, Liu, Andrew W, Chan, Carter, Yang, Heiko, Sui, Wilson, Desai, Manoj, Ho, Sunita, Chi, Thomas, Stoller, Marshall L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.08.2024
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Algorithms; Female; Humans; Kidney Calculi - surgery; Kidney Calculi - urine; Machine Learning; Male; Middle Aged; Recurrence; ROC Curve; Urinalysis - methods; nephrolithiasis; 24-hour urine; machine learning; kidney stone; outcomes
• ISSN: 1557-900X
• DOI: 10.1089/end.2023.0457

The absence of predictive markers for kidney stone recurrence poses a challenge for the clinical management of stone disease. The unpredictability of stone events is also a significant limitation for clinical trials, where many patients must be enrolled to obtain sufficient stone events for analysis. In this study, we sought to use machine learning methods to identify a novel algorithm to predict stone recurrence. Patients enrolled in the Registry for Stones of the Kidney and Ureter (ReSKU), a registry of nephrolithiasis patients collected between 2015-2020, with at least one prospectively collected 24-hour urine test (Litholink 24-hour urine test; Labcorp) were included in the training set. A validation set was obtained from chart review of stone patients not enrolled in ReSKU with 24-hour urine data. Stone events were defined as either an office visit where a patient reports symptomatic passage of stones or a surgical procedure for stone removal. Seven prediction classification methods were evaluated. Predictive analyses and receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve generation were performed in R. A training set of 423 kidney stone patients with stone event data and 24-hour urine samples were trained using the prediction classification methods. The highest performing prediction model was a Logistic Regression with ElasticNet machine learning model (area under curve [AUC] = 0.65). Restricting analysis to high confidence predictions significantly improved model accuracy (AUC = 0.82). The prediction model was validated on a validation set of 172 stone patients with stone event data and 24-hour urine samples. Prediction accuracy in the validation set demonstrated moderate discriminative ability (AUC = 0.64). Repeat modeling was performed with four of the highest scoring features, and ROC analyses demonstrated minimal loss in accuracy (AUC = 0.63). Machine-learning models based on 24-hour urine data can predict stone recurrences with a moderate degree of accuracy.