The use of an expert system in the clinical laboratory as an aid in the diagnosis of anemia.
Experience with an expert system developed for the purpose of classification of anemias is presented. Input for this system consists of limited demographic information on each patient and the results of the complete blood count, with the incorporation of the results of further chemical testing (serum iron/total iron binding capacity/ferritin and serum B12/serum folate/red blood cell folate), if indicated. Performance of this system is demonstrated using data from 84 patients seen in the authors' laboratory selected either because of a request for evaluation by the attending physician or because of significant anemias. Using this limited input, the system was able to accurately classify 74 of 84 (88%) of cases according to previously established criteria. The output from the system is overread by a pathologist. Future directions are also discussed.
D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000747:Anemia, Hypochromic / Q000175:diagnosis; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans