Interactive Knowledge Base for Interpretation of Serologic Tests for Hepatitis Accessible by WWW

The new system HEPAXPERT-IIIIWWW an implementation of HEPAXPERT -III' for WWW is an expert system that interprets the results of qualitative and quantitative routine serologic tests for infection with hepatitis A and B. The fully interactive system based on Cold Fusion Application Servertm is the successor of an off-line HEPAXPERT/WWW2 that returned the results by e-mail up to 24 hours after request. The system automatically provides and interprets the result of the laboratory tests measuring antigens and antibodies, without the use of additional biochemical or clinical data, and thus helps physicians to understand complex serologic findings. To deal with all possible combinations of findings, the knowledge base of HEPAXPERT-III/WWW contains 16 rules for hepatitis A and 131 rules for hepatitis B interpretation. In analyzing serologic test results, the program compares the constellation of serologic findings with constellations that may occur in the course of hepatitis A or B infection. Possible active or passive immunization is taken into account as well. However, there are several possible sources of misinterpretation, such as deviations in the course of the disease from the assumed courses, as well as falsely positive and falsely negative findings. Therefore, in each case the program's conclusions have to be correlated with the patient's overall clinical picture. HEPAXPERT-III/WWW can be reached by URL http://medexpert.imc.akh-wien.ac.at/hepax of the World Wide Web. Serologic test results can be entered and will be interpreted immediately. HEPAXPERT-III/WWW can be accessed from any state-of-the-art WWW-browser.