Diagnosis of cognitive and motor disorders levels in stroke patients through explainable machine learning based on MRI

Abstract Background Globally, stroke is the third most significant cause of disability. A stroke may produce motor, sensory, perceptual, or cognitive disorders that result in disability and affect the likelihood of recovery, affecting a person's ability to function. Evaluation post‐stroke is critical for optimal stroke care. Purpose Traditional methods for classifying the clinical disorders of cognitive and motor in stroke patients use assessment and interrogative measures, which are time‐consuming, complex, and labor‐intensive. In response to the current situation, this study develops an algorithm to automatically classify motor and cognitive disorders in stroke patients by 3D brain MRI to assist physicians in diagnosis. Methods First, radiomics and fusion features are extracted from the OAx T2 Propeller of 3D brain MRI. Then, we use 14 machine learning models and one model ensemble method to predict Fugl‐Meyer and MMSE levels of stroke patients. Next, we evaluate the models using accuracy, recall, f1‐score, and area under the curve (AUC). Finally, we employ SHAP to explain the output of the model. Results The best predictive models come from Random Forest (RF) Classifier with fusion features in cognitive classification and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) with radiomics features in motor classification. The highest accuracies are 92.0 and 82.5% for cognitive and motor disorders. Conclusions MRI brain maps can classify the cognitive and motor disorders of stroke patients. Radiomics features demonstrate its merits. The proposed algorithms with MRI images can efficiently assist physicians in diagnosing the cognitive and motor disorders of stroke patients in clinical practice. Additionally, this lessens labor costs, improves diagnostic effectiveness, and avoids the subjective difference that comes with manual assessment.