VIE-PNN - AN EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR CALCULATIN G THE COMPOSITION OF PARENTERAL-NUTRITION SOLUTIONS FOR NEONATES

Daily renewed composition of parenteral nutrition for premature and fu ll-term newborn infants in intensive care is time consuming and prone to inherent calculation errors. We developed a knowledge based system, VIE-PNN (Vienna Expert System for Calculating Parenteral Nutrition of Neonates) for calculating the proposed composition of parenteral nutr ition on the basis of the calculating algorithm used at our neonatal i ntensive care unit. The system needs manual input on postnatal age, bo dy weight, serum electrolytes (or normal values if not available), amo unt and content of additional oral feeds, venous access (peripheral or central), total amount of fluid intake, and complications such as sep sis (reduced lipid supply) or cholestasis (reduced amino acid supply). The parenteral nutrition proposal may interactively be modified by th e attending physician. There are possibilities for error detection to reduce the probability of typing or calculation errors. The system was developed to run on IBM compatible PCs and has been tested clinically . We describe the problem domain, system structure, clinical evaluatio n of VIE-PNN and the calculation of a standard parenteral nutrition so lution from the data stored in the system's database.