In Vivo Raman\nSpectroscopy of Muscle Is Highly Sensitive\nfor Detection of Healthy Muscle and Highly Specific for Detection\nof Disease

Raman spectroscopy\nof muscle provides a molecular fingerprint\nto\nidentify the disease. Previous work has demonstrated effectiveness\nin differentiating between two groups of equal sizes (e.g., healthy\nvs disease) but imbalanced multiclass scenarios are more common in\nmedicine. We performed in vivo Raman spectroscopy in a total of 151\nmice across four different histopathologies (healthy, acute myopathy,\nchronic myopathy, neurogenic), with variable numbers in each (class\n“imbalance”). Using hierarchical modeling and synthetic\ndata generation, we demonstrate high sensitivity (94%) for detection\nof healthy muscle and high specificity (≥97%) for disease.\nFurther, we demonstrate the potential for unique biomarker development\nby demonstrating variations in the protein structure across different\npathologies. The findings demonstrate the potential of Raman spectroscopy\nto provide accurate disease identification and unique molecular insights.