A computer-based consultation system (expert system) for the classification and diagnosis of dizziness.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P Zanocco.
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A computerized system (VERTIGO) aimed to the classification and diagnosis of different types of vertigo has been developed. It is based on the shell EXPERT (Weiss and Kulikowski, 1979). At present only the findings arising from patient history are considered as input data and the diagnostic possibilities of the system have been limited to the differential diagnosis of vertigo due to peripheral vestibular disorders. About thirty different forms of vertigo are taken into account. They are clustered in two groups, true vertigo and dizziness. Data are collected through a computer controlled questionnaire. Using the facilities offered by EXPERT, the sequence of the questions can be modified according to the flow of information in order to reproduce different diagnostic strategies. After history taking, the system presents a summary of the available findings followed by its diagnostic conclusions. Different conclusions can be proposed with different degrees of certainty. Conclusions can be justified by the system when required.
Expert Systems are a new method developed by the branch of Computer Science known as Artificial Intelligence in order to make available the knowledge and the expertise of the specialists in a certain domain of the science to other operators in the same field. Most of their applications belong to the medical domain. In this paper the main features of the expert systems are briefly described. As an example the structure and the characteristics of the shell EXPERT (Weiss and Kulikowski, 1979) are presented in detail. This shell has already been used to develop several expert systems. It is the tool by which we constructed a consultation system (VERTIGO) aimed to classify different types of vertigo.
Suppression of vestibular nystagmus induced by fixation of visual and acoustic targets moving with the head during sinusoidal rotation (0.1 Hz, 75 degrees/second peak velocity) was tested in cerebellar and noncerebellar patients. Visual suppression was impaired greatly in cerebellar patients, without correlation with visual smooth-pursuit defects. Acoustic suppression was equal to or slightly weaker than visual suppression. In noncerebellar patients, a disturbance of visual suppression was found only in the presence of a severe impairment of pursuit eye movements. Acoustic suppression did not parallel the visual-suppression pattern. In clinical vestibular examination, an impaired modulation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex suggests a cerebellar dysfunction, but also can occur in the presence of disorders of other parts of the CNS severely affecting the SP system.
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