A Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Approach for Down Syndrome Risk Prediction in First Trimester Screening
<b>Background/Objectives:</b> The aim of this study is to develop a hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) approach to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of Down Syndrome (DS) risk prediction during first trimester prenatal screening. The proposed method transforms one-dimens...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-06-01
|
| Series: | Diagnostics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/15/12/1444 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | <b>Background/Objectives:</b> The aim of this study is to develop a hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) approach to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of Down Syndrome (DS) risk prediction during first trimester prenatal screening. The proposed method transforms one-dimensional (1D) patient data—including features such as nuchal translucency (NT), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A)—into two-dimensional (2D) Aztec barcode images, enabling advanced feature extraction using transformer-based deep learning models. <b>Methods</b>: The dataset consists of 958 anonymous patient records. Each record includes four first trimester screening markers, hCG, PAPP-A, and NT, expressed as multiples of the median. The DS risk outcome was categorized into three classes: high, medium, and low. Three transformer architectures—DeiT3, MaxViT, and Swin—are employed to extract high-level features from the generated barcodes. The extracted features are combined into a unified set, and dimensionality reduction is performed using two feature selection techniques: minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR) and RelieF. Intersecting features from both selectors are retained to form a compact and informative feature subset. The final features are classified using machine learning algorithms, including Bagged Trees and Naive Bayes. <b>Results</b>: The proposed approach achieved up to 100% classification accuracy using the Naive Bayes classifier with 1250 features selected by RelieF and 527 intersecting features from mRMR. By selecting a smaller but more informative subset of features, the system significantly reduced hardware and processing demands while maintaining strong predictive performance. <b>Conclusions</b>: The results suggest that the proposed hybrid AI method offers a promising and resource-efficient solution for DS risk assessment in first trimester screening. However, further comparative studies are recommended to validate its performance in broader clinical contexts. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2075-4418 |