Computer-assisted localization of nervous system injuries

Expert systems to assist in neurological diagnosis require a representation of anatomical relationships. In order to test one representational method, a prototype expert system was developed. It accepts patient signs of neurological dysfunction and identifies the site of nervous system injury. The system's knowledge base is contained in a semantic network which represents nervous system anatomy and the physical signs of injuries. When provided with an individual's physical signs, the network is searched by a simple algorithm; the anatomical locations which best explain the physical signs are the system's output. Medical expert systems which require anatomical reasoning can use a direct representation of spatial relationships to avoid the difficulties of encoding clinical associations in the form of If-Then rules.