Detection of endometriosis with the use of plasma protein profiling by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry  Haiyuan Liu, M.D., Jinghe Lang, M.D., Qunfang Zhou, M.D., Dan Shan, M.D., Qizhai Li, Ph.D.  Fertility and Sterility  Volume 87, Issue 4, Pages 988-990 (April 2007) DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2006.08.095 Copyright © 2007 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions

FIGURE 1 Classification of patients with endometriosis (EM) and controls in the training set. All 68 cases enter the decision tree from the root node in the first layer, which splits into one daughter node and one terminal node (terminal node 1) in the second layer, according to the peak intensity with an m/z value of 3,956.83 Da. Twenty-five cases are assigned to terminal node 1, because their peak intensity value is >1.641 and are classified as healthy, while two endometriosis patients are misdiagnosed. Similarly, the other 43 cases are further classified according to the peak intensity with an m/z value of 11,710.70 Da. Another 23 cases in the third layer are classified as patients with endometriosis in terminal node 2, where one healthy control is misclassified. In the fourth layer, the residual 20 cases are classified into terminal node 3 (healthy cases) and terminal node 4 (patients with endometriosis) according to the peak intensity with an m/z value of 6,986.45 Da. In terminal node 3, two endometriosis patients are misdiagnosed. In terminal node 4, three healthy controls are misdiagnosed. Liu. Detection of EM by SELDI-TOF-MS. Fertil Steril 2007. Fertility and Sterility 2007 87, 988-990DOI: (10.1016/j.fertnstert.2006.08.095) Copyright © 2007 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions