Identification and validation of an explainable machine learning model for vascular depression diagnosis in the older adults: a multicenter cohort study.

Journal: BMC medicine
Published Date: Jul 31, 2025

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Vascular depression (VaDep) is a prevalent affective disorder in older adults that significantly impacts functional status and quality of life. Early identification and intervention are crucial but largely insufficient in clinical practice due to inconspicuous depressive symptoms mostly, heterogeneous imaging manifestations, and the lack of definitive peripheral biomarkers. This study aimed to develop and validate an interpretable machine learning (ML) model for VaDep to serve as a clinical support tool.

Authors

  • Ran Zhang
    Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210009, China.
  • Tian Li
    College of Plant Protection, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
  • Fan Fan
    Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Optoelectronic Measurement Technology and Instrument, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing, China.
  • Haoying He
    Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169# East Lake Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430071, China.
  • Liuyi Lan
    Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169 Donghu Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan , Hubei Province, 430071, China.
  • Dong Sun
    Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. medsun@cityu.edu.hk.
  • Zhipeng Xu
    Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, P. R. China.
  • Sisi Peng
    Department of Neuropsychology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169# East Lake Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430071, China.
  • Jing Cao
    Eye Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for Eye Diseases, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Institute on Eye Diseases, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
  • Juan Xu
    College of Bioinformatics Science and Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China. xujuanbiocc@ems.hrbmu.edu.cn.
  • Xiaoxiang Peng
    Department of Neurology, Third People's Hospital of Hubei Province, Wuhan, China.
  • Ming Lei
    Department of Radiology, Zhuhai Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 53 Jingle Road, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China.
  • Hao Song
    Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
  • Junjian Zhang
    Department of Neurology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169# East Lake Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430071, China. Electronic address: zhangjj@whu.edu.cn.

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