Knowledge Discovery from Medical Data and Development of an Expert System in Immunology

Artificial intelligence is one of the fastest-developing areas of science that covers a remarkably wide range of problems to be solved. It has found practical application in many areas of human activity, also in medicine. One of the directions of cooperation between computer science and medicine is to assist in diagnosing and proposing treatment methods with the use of IT tools. This study is the result of collaboration with the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, from where a database containing information about patients suffering from Bruton’s disease was made available. This is a rare disorder, difficult to detect in the first months of life. It is estimated that one in 70,000 to 90,000 children will develop Bruton’s disease. But even these few cases need detailed attention from doctors. Based on the data contained in the database, data mining was performed. During this process, knowledge was discovered that was presented in a way that is understandable to the user, in the form of decision trees. The best models obtained were used for the implementation of expert systems. Based on the data introduced by the user, the system conducts expertise and determines the severity of the course of the disease or the severity of the mutation. The CLIPS language was used for developing the expert system. Then, using this language, software was developed producing six expert systems. In the next step, experimental verification was performed, which confirmed the correctness of the developed systems.

ATOPIC DERMATITIS: DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS (PART 1)

The article is devoted to the topical problem of clinical allergology — differential diagnosis of atopic dermatitis (AD). The clinical manifestations of AD are quite similar to the extremely large number of different diseases and pathological conditions in children, which often leads to misdiagnosis. The complexity of the differential diagnosis of AD in children with a detailed description of different pediatrics diseases: from dermatological diseases (seborrheic dermatitis, eczema, shingles, scabies, ichthyosis, psoriasis, bullous epidermolysis, allergic dermatitis, cutaneous mastocytosis) to oncological (T-cell skin lymphoma), orphan metabolic diseases (hereditary disorders of tryptophan metabolism, phenylketonuria, Nezerton’s syndrome, etc.) and primary immunodeficiencies (Bruton’s disease, Job’s syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, selective IgA immunodeficiency etc.) is described. Сommon features of above mentioned diseases are listed in the article, also, special attention is paid to variety of the pathognomonic symptoms. Key words: atopic dermatitis, differential diagnosis, children.

Primary immunodeficiency

Introduction Classification of immunodeficiency Clinical features of immunodeficiency Investigation of immunodeficiency Laboratory investigation Major B-lymphocyte disorders Rare antibody deficiency syndromes X-linked agammaglobulinaemia (Bruton’s disease) Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) CVID 2: complications and treatment Selective IgA deficiency IgG subclass deficiency Specific antibody deficiency with normal serum immunoglobulins...