The Isabel Differential Diagnosis Generator for Orbital Diagnosis

Abstract

Purpose: The Isabel differential diagnosis generator is one of the most widely known electronic diagnosis decision support tools. The authors prospectively evaluated the utility of Isabel for orbital disease differential diagnosis.

Methods: The terms "proptosis," "lid retraction," "orbit inflammation," "orbit tumour," "orbit tumor, infiltrative" and "orbital tumor, well-circumscribed" were separately input into Isabel and the results were tabulated. Then the clinical details (patient age, gender, signs, symptoms, and imaging findings) of 25 orbital cases from a textbook of orbital surgery were entered into Isabel. The top 10 differential diagnoses generated by Isabel were compared with the correct diagnosis.

Results: Isabel identified hyperthyroidism and Graves ophthalmopathy as the leading causes of lid retraction, but many common causes of proptosis and orbital tumors were not correctly elucidated. Of the textbook cases, Isabel correctly identified 4/25 (16%) of orbital cases as one of its top 10 differential diagnoses, and the median rank of the correct diagnosis was 6/10. Thirty-two percent of the output diagnoses were unlikely to cause orbital disease.

Conclusion: Isabel is currently of limited value in the mainstream orbital differential diagnosis. The incorporation of anatomic localizations and imaging findings may help increase the accuracy of orbital diagnosis.