Predicting Chest Radiograph Findings from Electrocardiograms Using Interpretable Machine Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Matejas, Julia, Żurawski, Olaf, Strodthoff, Nils, Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Matejas, Julia
Żurawski, Olaf
Strodthoff, Nils
Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
author_facet Matejas, Julia
Żurawski, Olaf
Strodthoff, Nils
Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
contents Purpose: Chest X-rays are essential for diagnosing pulmonary conditions, but limited access in resource-constrained settings can delay timely diagnosis. Electrocardiograms (ECGs), in contrast, are widely available, non-invasive, and often acquired earlier in clinical workflows. This study aims to assess whether ECG features and patient demographics can predict chest radiograph findings using an interpretable machine learning approach. Methods: Using the MIMIC-IV database, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) classifiers were trained to predict diverse chest radiograph findings from ECG-derived features and demographic variables. Recursive feature elimination was performed independently for each target to identify the most predictive features. Model performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals. Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) were applied to interpret feature contributions. Results: Models successfully predicted multiple chest radiograph findings with varying accuracy. Feature selection tailored predictors to each target, and including demographic variables consistently improved performance. SHAP analysis revealed clinically meaningful contributions from ECG features to radiographic predictions. Conclusion: ECG-derived features combined with patient demographics can serve as a proxy for certain chest radiograph findings, enabling early triage or pre-screening in settings where radiographic imaging is limited. Interpretable machine learning demonstrates potential to support radiology workflows and improve patient care.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_17674
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Predicting Chest Radiograph Findings from Electrocardiograms Using Interpretable Machine Learning
Matejas, Julia
Żurawski, Olaf
Strodthoff, Nils
Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
Signal Processing
Machine Learning
Purpose: Chest X-rays are essential for diagnosing pulmonary conditions, but limited access in resource-constrained settings can delay timely diagnosis. Electrocardiograms (ECGs), in contrast, are widely available, non-invasive, and often acquired earlier in clinical workflows. This study aims to assess whether ECG features and patient demographics can predict chest radiograph findings using an interpretable machine learning approach. Methods: Using the MIMIC-IV database, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) classifiers were trained to predict diverse chest radiograph findings from ECG-derived features and demographic variables. Recursive feature elimination was performed independently for each target to identify the most predictive features. Model performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals. Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) were applied to interpret feature contributions. Results: Models successfully predicted multiple chest radiograph findings with varying accuracy. Feature selection tailored predictors to each target, and including demographic variables consistently improved performance. SHAP analysis revealed clinically meaningful contributions from ECG features to radiographic predictions. Conclusion: ECG-derived features combined with patient demographics can serve as a proxy for certain chest radiograph findings, enabling early triage or pre-screening in settings where radiographic imaging is limited. Interpretable machine learning demonstrates potential to support radiology workflows and improve patient care.
title Predicting Chest Radiograph Findings from Electrocardiograms Using Interpretable Machine Learning
topic Signal Processing
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17674