Fuzzy inference system for PIOPED-compliant diagnosis of pulmonary embolism

摘要

A Fuzzy Inference System was developed to aid in the diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism using ventilation-perfusion scans and correlated chest x-rays. The diagnosis achieved needed to be accurate and reliable comparable to that of a nuclear medicine radiologist. The Mamdani fuzzy model has been employed to implement the inference system. Sources of expertise included the criteria defined by PIOPED, Biello, and two nuclear radiologists at the Medical College of Ohio, USA. The proposed Fuzzy Inference System requires the physician to extract feature information from the ventilation-perfusion scans and correlating chest x-rays to facilitate the computer-aided diagnosis process. The proposed inference system has been subjected to testing at various levels including actual user testing. Testing results are encouraging to warrant further exploration of the proposed technique as an integral component in a fully automated diagnosis system.