Predicting hypoglycemia in critically Ill patients using machine learning and electronic health records

Hypoglycemia is a common occurrence in critically ill patients and is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. We developed a machine learning model to predict hypoglycemia by using a multicenter intensive care unit (ICU) electronic health record dataset. Machine learning algorithms were trained and tested on patient data from the publicly available eICU Collaborative Research Database. Forty-four features including patient demographics, laboratory test results, medications, and vitals sign recordings were considered. The outcome of interest was the occurrence of a hypoglycemic event (blood glucose < 72 mg/dL) during a patient’s ICU stay. Machine learning models used data prior to the second hour of the ICU stay to predict hypoglycemic outcome. Data from 61,575 patients who underwent 82,479 admissions at 199 hospitals were considered in the study. The best-performing predictive model was the eXtreme gradient boosting model (XGBoost), which achieved an area under the received operating curve (AUROC) of 0.85, a sensitivity of 0.76, and a specificity of 0.76. The machine learning model developed has strong discrimination and calibration for the prediction of hypoglycemia in ICU patients. Prospective trials of these models are required to evaluate their clinical utility in averting hypoglycemia within critically ill patient populations.