title: CASSPERT--an expert system to guide choice and strategy in coronary angioplasty.
abstract: Coronary angioplasty is a technique widely used in the treatment of coronary artery disease. The success of coronary angioplasty depends on patient selection, the use of an appropriate technique, and to a large extent a carefully considered choice of angioplasty equipment. The authors have developed an expert system which can assist in this decision making process. CASSPERT was developed using the expert system shell 'Leonardo' running on a standard Personal Computer. The user interacts with CASSPERT to build up a detailed profile of clinical, investigational and angiographic features of the patient. This information, together with technical data stored within Leonardo's own object orientated database, is used to infer a suitable choice of equipment. To make the expert system useful in clinical practise, it was interfaced within a functional, readily accessible, data acquisition and storage environment which could be used within the day to day running of the department.
authors.affiliation: Department of Total Technology, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK.
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Violaris
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Violaris
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Cumberland
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000628:therapy; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface