Fig. 2: Imputing out-of-panel biomarkers and using the Full ENC model did not substantially reduce predictive accuracy compared to bespoke models for each representative panel.

Comparison of concordance values across bespoke models vs imputed ENC models, for each of the 10 real-world representative blood panels, on the Scottish test set. Sex and age were also included as (unpenalised) features in all models. The number in brackets next to the panel name indicates the panel number as per Supplementary Table 3. The number in square brackets indicates the count of biomarkers (b=) in the panel. The performance of the impute-then-Full-ENC method is similar to that of the bespoke models, especially for the more comprehensive panels. The green dashed vertical line indicates the 0.726 C-Index of the (sex and chronological age only) null model, whilst the blue line indicates the 0.778 C-Index of the Full ENC model with all 25 selected biomarkers measured. “+CC” indicates the addition of cystatin C to the panel (panels 4 and 10).