Fuzzy Expert System Prediction of Lumbar Spine Subchondral Sclerosis and Lumbar Disk Hernia

One of the first degenerative diseases of the lumbar spine is the subchondral sclerosis from which other degenerative complications can occur. The first symptom of the subchondral sclerosis and herniated disk is the low back pain. The subchondral sclerosis and herniated disk is often associated with obesity, high body fat index, and high stress on the vertebral spine. This paper proposes a fuzzy expert system which predicts that a patient will suffer from subchondral sclerosis. The expert system correlates the body mass index (BMI) with the body fat (BF) percentage and the daily activity expressed by the consumed calories. In total 60 inference rules were created and the first results present a correlation of 0.91 with the results from the control group. Using this system, a compliant patient can avoid serious spinal cord problems.