Diagnostic monitoring in anaesthesia using fuzzy trend templates for matching temporal patterns

A technique based on the concept of a 'fuzzy trend template' has been devel oped to identify characteristic patterns in multiple time-series. The metho d has its foundation in fuzzy logic and allows for the intuitive and transp arent description of 'templates', which preserve nuances of vagueness, temp oral relationships and quantitative descriptors. Evaluation of fuzzy trend templates can provide both belief and plausibility information for use in d iagnostic applications. The technique has been applied to the diagnosis of specific problems in anaesthesia and has demonstrated sensitivity and speci ficity of 95 and 65%. respectively. Evaluation of fuzzy trend templates is, computationally, relatively efficient and has allowed a real-time implemen tation. The technique has the potential to be useful in any domain that req uires temporal pattern recognition based on linguistic rules. (C) 1999 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.