Prototype Expert System for Gout Diagnosis on an Outpatient Basis

Abstract

Gout is a systemic disease that is caused by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals in various tissues which leads to inflammation in them. This disease is often misdiagnosed. It leads to the lack of adequate medical care and development of serious complications, such as urate nephropathy and disability. The current situation can be improved by optimizing the medical care provided to patients, which requires searching for new strategies in terms of diagnosis. One of these strategies is the development of an expert system for providing information assistance to medical specialists which was a purpose of this study. The developed prototype expert system for gout diagnosis has knowledge base including 1144 medical concepts and 5 640 522 links, intelligent knowledge base editor and software which helps practitioner make the final decision. It has sensitivity of 91,3% [95% CI, 89,1%-93,1%], specificity of 85,4% [95% CI, 82,9%-87,6%] and AUROC 0,954 [95% CI, 0,944-0,963].

Keywords: Clinical decision support system; Expert system; Gout; Knowledge base.