Skip to main content
Log in

Fuzzy Rule-Based Expert System for Assessment Severity of Asthma

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Journal of Medical Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Prescription medicine for asthma at primary stages is based on asthma severity level. Despite major progress in discovering various variables affecting asthma severity levels, disregarding some of these variables by physicians, variables’ inherent uncertainty, and assigning patients to limited categories of decision making are the major causes of underestimating asthma severity, and as a result low quality of life in asthmatic patients. In this paper, we provide a solution of intelligence fuzzy system for this problem. Inputs of this system are organized in five modules of respiratory symptoms, bronchial obstruction, asthma instability, quality of life, and asthma severity. Output of this system is degree of asthma severity in score (0–10). Evaluating performance of this system by 28 asthmatic patients reinforces that the system’s results not only correspond with evaluations of physicians, but represent the slight differences of asthmatic patients placed in specific category introduced by guidelines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hanania, A. N., Revisiting asthma control: How should it best be defined? Pulm. Pharmacol. Ther. 20(5):483–492, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Asthma and Environmental Triggers. National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) (online). WWW URL: http//www.dph.state.ct.us/BCH/new_Asthma/03environ.pdf.

  3. Bavgek, S., Mungan, D., Türktaş, H., Mısırlıgil, Z., and Gemicioğlu, B., A cost-of-illness study estimating the direct cost per asthma exacerbation in Turkey, Respiratory Medicine, 2010.

  4. Yan, D. C., Ou, L. S., Tsai, T. L., Wu, W. F., and Huang, J. L., Prevalence and severity of symptoms of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in 13- to 14-year-old children in Taipei, Taiwan. Ann. Allergy Asthma Immunol. 95(6):579–585, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wolfenden, L. L., Diette, G. B., Krishnan, J. A., Skinner, E. A., Steinwachs, D. M., and Wu, A. W., Lower physician estimate of underlying asthma severity leads to undertreatment. Arch. Intern. Med. 163:231–236, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rodrigo, G. J., Plaza, V., Neffen, H., Levy, G., and Perpina, M., Relationship between the characteristic of hospitalized acute asthma patients and the severity of their asthma. A case control study. J. Allergol. Immunopathol. 37(5):225–229, 2009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gautier, V., Redier, H., Pujol, J. L., Bousquet, J., Proundhon, H., Michel, C., Daures, J. P., Michel, F. B., and Godard, Ph, Comparison of an expert system with other clinical scores for the evaluation of the severity of asthma. Eur. Respir. J. 9:58–54, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Global Initiative for Asthma. Global Strategy for Management and Prevention. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. National Institutes of Health. 2009 NIH publication (online). WWW URL. Http:\\www.ginasthma.com. Accessed December 2009.

  9. Üncü, Ü., Evaluation of pulmonary function tests by using fuzzy logic theory. J. Med. Syst. 34(2):223–417, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Aas, K., Heterogeneity of bronchial asthma. Allergy. 36:3–14, 1981.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hargreave, F. E., Dolovich, J., and Newhouse, M. T., The assessment and treatment of asthma: A conference report. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 85:1098–1111, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Brooks, S. M., Bernstein, L., Raghuprasad, P. K., Maccia, C. A., and Mieczkowski, L., Assessment of airway hyperresponsiveness in chronic stable asthma. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 85:17–26, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Global Initiative for Asthma. Global Strategy for Management and Prevention 2006 Revision. National Institutes of Health, National Heart,Lung, and Blood Institute (online). WWW URL: http//www.ginasthma.com. Accessed august 2006.

  14. Boulet, L. P., Becker, A., Berube, D., et al., Canadian Asthma Consensus Report, 1999. Canadian Asthma Consensus Group. CMAJ. 161(Suppl. 11):S1–S61, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Combescure, C., Chanez, P., Saint-Pierre, P., Daure’s, J.-P., Proudhon, H., and Godard, P., Assessment of variations in control of asthma over time. Eur. Respir. J. 22:298–304, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Shout, J. W., Visness, M. C., Enright, P., Lamm, C., Shapiro, G., Gan, N. V., Adams, G. K., and Mitchell, H. E., Classification of asthma severity in children the contribution of pulmonary function testing. Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med. 160:844–850, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Yen, C. Y., Rule selection in fuzzy expert system. Expert Syst. Appl. 16:79–84, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Cohen’s kappa, Webonline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen’s_kappa.

  19. Global Initiative for Asthma, Global Strategy for Management and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2008 NIH publication.

  20. Kornelija, K., Slavica, D., Dorijan, T. D., and Miljenko, R., Correlation between asthma severity and serum IgE in asthmatic children sensitized to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. Arch. Med. Res. 38(no 1):99–105, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Mamdani, E. H., and Assilian, S., An expriment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller. Int. Man Mach. Stud. 7:1–13, 1975.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Emami, R. M., Turksen, I. B., and Goldenberg, A. A., A unified parameterized formulation of reasoning in fuzzy modeling and control. Fuzzy Sets Syst. 108:59–81, 1999.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Morgan, W. J., Crain, E. F., Gruchalla, R. S., et al., Results of a home-based environmental intervention among urban children with asthma. N. Engl. J. Med. 351:1068–1080, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Rubinfeld, A. R., and Pain, M. C. F., Relationship between bronchial reactivity, airway caliber and severity of asthma. Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. 115:381–387, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Stout, J. W., Visness, C. M., Enright, P., Lamm, C., Shapiro, G., Gan, V. N., Adams, G. K., and Mitchell, H. E., Classification of asthma severity in children, the contribution of pulmonary function testing. Arch. Pediatric. Adolesc. Med. 160(8):844–850, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Enright, P. L., lebowitz, M. D., and Cockroft, D. W., Physiologic measures: Pulmonary function tests: Asthma outcome. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 149:S9–S18, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Bacharier, B. L., Strunk, C. R., Mauger, D., White, D., Lemanske, F. R., and Sorkness, A. C., Classifying asthma severity in children mismatch between symptoms, medication use, and lung function. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 170:426–432, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Lil, J. T., Schatz, M., Sorkness, C. A., Murray, J. J., Marcus, P., Nathan, R. A., Pendergraft, T. B., Kosinski, M., and Stanford, R. H., Specialist asthma care results in superior assessment of asthma control. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 113(2):S253, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Eigen, H., Pulmonary function testing. In: Murphy, S., and Kelly, H. W. (Eds.), Pediatric Asthma. Marcel Eekker, Inc, New York, pp. 131–150, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Wright, A., Holberg, C., Morgan, W., Taussig, L., Halonen, M., and Martinez, F., Recurrent cough in childhood and its relation to asthma. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 153:1259–1265, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Devulapalli, C. S., Carlsen, K. C., Håland, G., Munthe-Kaas, M. C., Pettersen, M., Mowinckel, P., and Carlsen, K. H., Severity of obstructive airways disease by age 2 years predicts asthma at 10 years of age. Thorax. 63(1):8–13, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Everhar R. S., and Fiese, B., Asthma severity and child quality of life in pediatric asthma: A systematic review. Patient Educ Couns. 75(2):162–168, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Redier, H., Daures, J.-P., Michel, C., Proudhon, H., Vervloet, D., Charpin, D., Marsac, J., Dusser, D., Brambilla, C., Wallaert, B., Kopferschmitt, M.-C., Pauli, G., Taytard, A., Cogis, O., Cogis, O., Michel, F.-B., and Godard, P., Assessment of the severity of asthma by an expert system: Description and evaluation. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 151(21):345–352, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Moin, M., Principle of asthma. In: Moine, M., et al. (Eds.), Asthma; Basic clinical science, 1st edition. University Publication Center, Tehran, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Pedrycz, W., Why triangular membership functions? Fuzzy Sets Syst. 64(1):21–30, 1994.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  36. Phuong, H. N., and Kreinovich, V., Fuzzy logic and its applications in medicine. Int. J. Med. Inform. 62:165–173, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Sugeno, M., and Yasukawa, T., A fuzzy-logic-based approach to qualitative modeling. IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst. 1(1):7–30, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Schwartz, G., Gupta, R. S., Springston, E., Zhang, X., and Grammer, L. C., The association between crime and adult asthma severity. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 125(2):AB32, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Everhart, R. S., Barbara, H. F., Asthma severity and child quality of life in pediatric asthma: A systematic review. Patient Educ Couns. 75(2):162–168, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Lurie, A., Marsala, C., Hartley, S., Bouchon-Meunier, B., and Dusser, D., Patients’ perception of asthma severity. Respir. Med. 101:2145–2152, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Robin, S., Everhart, R., and Fiese, B., Asthma severity and child quality of life in pediatric asthma: A systematic review, Patient Education and Counseling, PEC-3232, 2008.

  42. Joseph, C., Baptist, A., Stringer, S., Havstad, S., Ownby, D., Johnson, C., Williams, L., and Peterson, E., Identifying students with self-report of asthma and respiratory symptoms in an urban, High school setting. J. Urban Health. 84(1):60–69, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Bateman, D., Hurd, S., Barnes, J., Bousquet, J., Drazen, J., itzGerald, F., Gibson, M., Gibson, F., Ohta, K., O’Byrne, P., Pedersen, S., Pizzichini, E., Sullivan, S., and Zar, H., Global strategy for asthma management and prevention: GINA executive summary. Eur. Respir. J. 31:143–178, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Pedersen, S., Pauwels, R. A., Tan, W. C., Chen, Y. Z., Lamm, C. J., and O’Byrne, P. M., effectiveness of early intervention with budesonide in mild persistent asthma. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 121(5):1167–1174, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Kelly, L., Ronmark, E., Roper, J., James, H., Lundback, B., and Platts-Mills, T., IgE And IgG antibodies to cat allergens in relation to asthma severity among 963 teenagers living in Northern Sweden. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 125(2):AB188, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Brightling, C. E., Burney, P., et al., Uniform definition of asthma severity, control, and exacerbations: Document presented for the World Health Organization Consultation on Severe Asthma. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 126(5):926–938, 2010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Omachi, T. A., Poor outcomes and asthma hospitalisations: How important is asthma severity and how do we measure it? Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 37(5):223–224, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Madhok, N., Kipperman, S., Tom, C., Sin, S., and Rastogi, D., “Parental perception and knowledge of asthma severity and management of athmatic children in the bronx”. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 123(2):S161, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Janssens, T., verleden, G., Peuter, S. D., Diest, I. V., and Bergh, O. V. D., Inaccurate perception of asthma symptoms: A cognitive–affective framework and implications for asthma treatment. Clin Psychol Rev. 29(4):317–327, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

I would like to appreciate all who gave me the possibility to complete this paper. I want to thank the physicians and staff of Immunology, Asthma & Allergy Research center for their collaboration in providing necessary knowledge. I thank Dr Heydarnejad and Dr. Fazlollahi for their guidance, Mehdi Taherian for contribution in knowledge representation I appreciate Zahra Zolnoor, Ali Zolnoor, and Mohammad Reza Zolnoor for providing general information. Finally I thank Neda Kharghani for reviewing this paper and providing useful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryam Zolnoori.

Appendix

Appendix

In the appendix some rules related to module of asthma control system is represented.

  • Module of Respiratory symptom severity

If

Daily symptoms is sometimes

AND Nocturnal symptoms is sometimes

AND Dyspnoea is Medium_low

Then

SRS is Medium_low

  • Module of Bronchial Obstruction

If

FEV1>.90%

AND FVC>.90%

AND FEV1/FVC >.90%

Then

BO is Normal

  • Module of Asthma Instability

If

PEF is mild

AND No exacerbation

Then

Asthma Instability is low

  • Module of Quality of life

If

Miss days of school is None

AND Effect on activities is None

AND Looking for new treatment is None

Then

The SF is good

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zolnoori, M., Zarandi, M.H.F., Moin, M. et al. Fuzzy Rule-Based Expert System for Assessment Severity of Asthma. J Med Syst 36, 1707–1717 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9631-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9631-8

Keywords

Navigation