Otoneurological Expert System for Vertigo

• Published in: Acta oto-laryngologica 1999, Vol.119 (5), p.517-521
• Main Authors: KENTALA, E, PYYKKÖ, I, AURAMO, Y, LAURIKKALA, J, JUHOLA, M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Biological and medical sciences; Cranial Nerve Neoplasms - diagnosis; Databases as Topic; Decision Making; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Expert Systems; Follow-Up Studies; Fuzzy Logic; Hearing Loss, Sudden - diagnosis; Humans; Medical sciences; Meniere Disease - diagnosis; Neurilemmoma - diagnosis; Neuritis - diagnosis; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Physicians; Problem Solving; Reproducibility of Results; Teaching - methods; Vertigo - diagnosis; Vertigo - physiopathology; Vestibular Nerve
• ISSN: 0001-6489; 1651-2251
• DOI: 10.1080/00016489950180720

We have developed an otoneurological expert system (ONE) to aid the diagnostics of vertigo, to assist teaching and to implement a database for research. The ONE database is set to harvest data on patient history, signs and test results necessary for diagnostic work with vertiginous patients. A method based on pattern recognition was used in the reasoning process. Questions about symptoms, signs and test results are weighted and scored for each disease and the most likely disease is recognized from defined disease profiles. Missing information and uncertainties are solved with a method resembling fuzzy logic. ONE was validated by comparing diagnoses assessed by physicians with those provided by the system. It proved to be a valid decision-maker by solving 65% of the cases correctly, while the physicians' mean was 69%. To improve ONE further, a follow-up should be implemented for the patients, since diagnosing sudden deafness and Meniere's disease during the first visit is often impossible. We aim to obtain new information on diseases involving vertigo by applying adaptive computer applications, such as genetic algorithms, to the reasoning process.