A belief rule based expert system to assess clinical bronchopneumonia suspicion

Bronchopneumonia is an acute or chronic inflammation of the lungs, in which the alveoli and/or interstitial are affected. Usually the diagnosis of Bronchopneumonia is carried out using signs and symptoms of this disease, which cannot be measured since they consist of various types of uncertainty. Consequently, traditional disease diagnosis, which is performed by a physician, cannot deliver accurate results. Therefore, this paper presents the design, development and application of an expert system for assessing the suspicion of Bronchopneumonia under uncertainty. The Belief Rule-Based Inference Methodology using the Evidential Reasoning (RIMER) approach was adopted to develop this expert system, which is named the Belief Rule-Based Expert System (BRBES). The system can handle various types of uncertainty in knowledge representation and inference procedures. The knowledge base of this system was constructed by using real patient data and expert opinion. Practical case studies were used to validate the system. The system-generated results are more effective and reliable in terms of accuracy than from the results generated by a manual system.