Data Screening Methods – Application to Differential Diagnosis in Pancreatic Pathology from Radiological Signs

Abstract

The practice of systematic examinations in hospitals and the increasing development of automatic data processing permits the storing of a great deal of information about a large number of patients belonging to different diagnosis groups.To predict or to characterize these diagnosis groups some descriptors are particularly useful, others carry no information. Data screening based on the properties of mutual information and on the log cross products ratios in contingency tables is developed. The most useful descriptors are selected. For each one the characterized groups are specified.This approach has been performed on a set of binary (presence—absence) radiological variables. Four diagnoses groups are concerned: cancer of pancreas, chronic calcifying pancreatitis, non-calcifying pancreatitis and probable pancreatitis. Only twenty of the three hundred and forty initial radiological variables are selected. The presence of each corresponding sign is associated with one or more diagnosis groups.