Fuzzy Logic-Based Formalisms for Gynecology Disease Diagnosis

Abstract

AbstractThe very basis of the present article is the fact that the medical knowledge consisting of clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of a disease is with imprecision and uncertainty. The overall approach in gynecological disease diagnosis could be divided into three distinct stages, and this was confirmed by seven experienced gynecologists. Stage 1 refers to an initial screening process in order to arrive at a single disease diagnosis for the patients, which is based only on the subjective information provided by patients to the physician. In stage 2, the patient who has not received a single diagnostic label in stage 1 is further investigated for a single disease diagnosis using past history criteria. If stage 2 fails to arrive at a single disease diagnosis for a patient, then physical examination and various tests like imaging tests, blood tests, etc., are conducted, and the test results are processed in stage 3. In stage 1, we have revisited fuzzy relational calculus and mathematically evaluated the perceptions of the domain experts (gynecologists) with respect to 31 gynecological diseases. The paper also presents the research findings with a case study focused on stage 2 using a type 1 fuzzy inference system. Out of 226 patients, 50 are correctly diagnosed for a single disease and 147 for multiple diseases in stage 1. The paper concludes that fuzzy relational calculus is an effective method as an “initial screening” process to arrive at a single disease diagnosis. We have identified 29 out of 226 patients satisfying past history criteria to achieve a single disease diagnosis by stage 2. Investigations for stage 3 are in progress.