Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Progression of Glaucoma in Patients with Sleep Apnea

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 12; no. 12; p. 6061
• Main Authors: Anton, Nicoleta, Lisa, Catalin, Doroftei, Bogdan, Curteanu, Silvia, Bogdanici, Camelia Margareta, Chiselita, Dorin, Branisteanu, Daniel Constantin, Nechita-Dumitriu, Ionela, Ilie, Ovidiu-Dumitru, Ciuntu, Roxana Elena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2022
• Subjects: AHI; Apnea; Artificial intelligence; artificial neural networks; Biomechanics; Blood pressure; BMI; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Confidence intervals; Cornea; Desaturation; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetic retinopathy; Eye diseases; Genetic algorithms; Glaucoma; Hypertension; Intraocular pressure; Mean square errors; Medical diagnosis; Multilayer perceptrons; Neural networks; Neurons; Ophthalmology; Oxygen content; Parameter modification; sleep apnea syndrome; Sleep disorders; Thickness; Visual field; Visual fields
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app12126061

Aim: To construct neural models to predict the progression of glaucoma in patients with sleep apnea. Materials and Methods: Modeling the use of neural networks was performed using the Neurosolutions commercial simulator. The built databases gather information on a group of patients with primitive open-angle glaucoma and normal-tension glaucoma, who have been associated with sleep apnea syndrome and various stages of disease severity. The data within the database were divided as follows: 65 were used in the neural network training stage and 8 were kept for the validation stage. In total, 21 parameters were selected as input parameters for neural models including: age of patients, BMI (body mass index), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, intraocular pressure, central corneal thickness, corneal biomechanical parameters (IOPcc, HC, CRF), AHI, desaturation index, nocturnal oxygen saturation, remaining AHI, type of apnea, and associated general conditions (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, COPD). The selected output parameters are: c/d ratio, modified visual field parameters (MD, PSD), ganglion cell layer thickness. Forward-propagation neural networks (multilayer perceptron) were constructed with a layer of hidden neurons. The constructed neural models generated the output values for these data. The obtained results were then compared with the experimental values. Results: The best results were obtained during the training stage with the ANN network (21:35:4). If we consider a 25% confidence interval, we find that very good results are obtained during the validation stage, except for the average GCL thickness, for which the errors are slightly higher. Conclusions: Excellent results were obtained during the validation stage, which support the results obtained in other studies in the literature that strengthen the connection between sleep apnea syndrome and glaucoma changes.