A multimodal predictive model for chronic kidney disease and its association with vascular complication in patients with type 2 diabetes: Model development and validation study in South Korea and the UK

<p dir="ltr">Objective: We aim to develop a multimodal model to predict chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), given the limited research on this integrative approach.</p><p dir="ltr">Research Design and Methods: We obtained multimodal datasets from Kyung Hee University Medical Center (South Korea; n=7028; discovery cohort) for training and internal validation and UK Biobank (n=1544; validation cohort) for external validation. CKD was defined based on the international classification of disease-9/10 codes and/or estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≤60 mL/min/1.73m². We ensembled various deep learning models and interpreted their predictions using explainable artificial intelligence (AI) methods, including shapley additive explanations (SHAP) and gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM). Subsequently, we investigated the potential association between the model probability and vascular complications.</p><p dir="ltr">Results: The multimodal model, which ensembles visual geometry group 16 (VGG16) and deep neural network (DNN), presented high performance in predicting CKD, with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.880 (95% CI, 0.806–0.954) in the discovery cohort and 0.722 in the validation cohort. SHAP and Grad-CAM highlighted key predictors, including eGFR and optic disc, respectively. The model probability was associated with an increased risk of macrovascular complications (T1: adjusted hazard ratio, 1.42 [95% CI, 1.06–1.90]; T2: 1.59 [1.17–2.16]; and T3: 1.64 [1.20–2.26]) and microvascular complications (T3: 1.30 [1.02–1.67]).</p><p dir="ltr">Conclusions: Our multimodal AI model integrates fundus images and clinical data from binational cohorts to predict the risk of new-onset CKD within five years and associated vascular complications in patients with T2DM.</p>