3D Regression Heat Map Analysis of Population Study Data

IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2016 Jan;22(1):81-90. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2015.2468291.

Abstract

Epidemiological studies comprise heterogeneous data about a subject group to define disease-specific risk factors. These data contain information (features) about a subject's lifestyle, medical status as well as medical image data. Statistical regression analysis is used to evaluate these features and to identify feature combinations indicating a disease (the target feature). We propose an analysis approach of epidemiological data sets by incorporating all features in an exhaustive regression-based analysis. This approach combines all independent features w.r.t. a target feature. It provides a visualization that reveals insights into the data by highlighting relationships. The 3D Regression Heat Map, a novel 3D visual encoding, acts as an overview of the whole data set. It shows all combinations of two to three independent features with a specific target disease. Slicing through the 3D Regression Heat Map allows for the detailed analysis of the underlying relationships. Expert knowledge about disease-specific hypotheses can be included into the analysis by adjusting the regression model formulas. Furthermore, the influences of features can be assessed using a difference view comparing different calculation results. We applied our 3D Regression Heat Map method to a hepatic steatosis data set to reproduce results from a data mining-driven analysis. A qualitative analysis was conducted on a breast density data set. We were able to derive new hypotheses about relations between breast density and breast lesions with breast cancer. With the 3D Regression Heat Map, we present a visual overview of epidemiological data that allows for the first time an interactive regression-based analysis of large feature sets with respect to a disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Breast Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Computer Graphics*
  • Epidemiologic Methods*
  • Fatty Liver
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged