A fuzzy-based methodology for the analysis of diabetic neuropathy

A new model for the fuzzy-based analysis of diabetic neuropathy is illustrated, whose pathogenesis so far is not well known. The underlying algebraic structure is a commutative 1-monoid, whose support is a set of classifications based on the concept of linguistic variable introduced by Zadeh. The analysis is carried out by means of patient's anagraphical and clinical data, e.g. age, sex, duration of the disease, insulinic needs, severity of diabetes, possible presence of complications. The results obtained by us are identical with medical diagnoses. Moreover, analyzing suitable relevance factors one gets reasonable information about the etiology of the disease, our results agree with most credited clinical hypotheses. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.