Development of a simplified model and nomogram for the prediction of pulmonary hemorrhage in respiratory distress syndrome in extremely preterm infants

Pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in extremely preterm infants exhibits a high mortality rate and poor long-term outcomes. The aim of the present study was to develop a machine learning (ML) predictive model for RDS with PH in extremely preterm infants.

We performed a retrospective analysis of extremely preterm infants with RDS at the Children’s Hospital of Soochow University between January 2015 and January 2021. We applied three ML algorithms—logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost)—to evaluate the performance of each model using the area under the curve (AUC), and developed a predictive model based on the optimal model. We calculated SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values to determine variables importance and show visualization results, and constructed a nomogram for individualized prediction.

A total of 309 patients with RDS were enrolled, including 48 (15.5%) with PH. A total of 29 variables were collected, including demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory data, and image classification. According to the AUC values, the RF model performed best (AUC = 0.868). Based on the SHAP values, the top five important variables in the RF model were gestational age, PaO₂/FiO₂, birth weight, mean platelet volume, and Apgar score at 5 min.

Our study showed that the RF model could be used to predict the risk of PH in RDS in extremely preterm infants. The nomogram provides clinicians with an effective tool for early warning and timely management.