Patent Document ID: 9355353
Application ID: 14111275

Base Claim:
1. A method for aiding diagnosis of an object showing at least one disorder and for selecting a finding that characterizes at least part of the state of the object, the method comprising: storing a number of findings in at least one data base; wherein each of the stored findings is described by a severity of the finding and a symptom constellation of a number of symptoms and by a graphic representation of the symptom constellation, as a visual pathology, wherein each symptom shows at least one symptom type and at least one expression, and wherein each symptom in each pathology is represented by a symbol the coordinates of which are determined in a first dimension by the symptom type of the symptom and in a second dimension by expression of the symptom, wherein the expression is determined by a subjectively perceived significance in respect of the disorder-generating source; and wherein a dialog-based, visual modeling of the state of the object occurs to which end the state of the object is described by a current symptom constellation which may comprise multiple symptoms, wherein each symptom shows at least one symptom type and at least one expression, and wherein the current symptom constellation is represented as an object image wherein each symptom is represented by a symbol whose coordinates are Determined in a first dimension by the symptom type of the symptom and in a second dimension by the expression of the symptom; and wherein to aid diagnosis at least one computer, at least one comparator, at least one input device, and at least one display device are provided; wherein the following process steps are carried out: deriving a current symptom constellation from a pre-defined symptom constellation; deriving a current list of findings from a pre-defined list of findings containing stored findings; deriving a current list of suggestions for symptoms from a pre-defined list of suggested symptoms; and wherein the following process steps are automatically repeated in a loop in this or another suitable sequence until a finding is determined manually, or until a pathology and thus the pertaining finding is selected or until the process is abandoned: a) by way of the input device at least one symptom of the current symptom constellation is modified for modelling the state of the object and the modified symptom constellation is stored as the current symptom constellation and the current symptom constellation is automatically and immediately graphically output on the display device as the current object image; b) the comparator automatically compares, following each case of symptom modification, the current symptom constellation against the stored symptom constellations of the findings of the current list of findings and immediately deletes from the current list of findings those findings showing a congruence with the current symptom constellation that remains beneath a predetermined, first value; c) the comparator automatically compares, following each case of symptom modification, the current symptom constellation against the symptom constellations of the findings stored in the data base and immediately adds to the current list of findings those stored findings showing a congruence of the respective symptom constellation with the current symptom constellation that lies above a predetermined, second value; d) the comparator automatically compares the current symptom constellation against the symptom constellations of the findings stored in the data base and adds stored findings to the current list of findings if the congruence of the respective symptom constellation with the current symptom constellation remains below the predetermined, first value but lies above a predetermined, third value if the disorder potential of the stored finding exceeds a predetermined threshold; e) the current list of findings is automatically and immediately sorted by the computer following each case of symptom modification, which sorting takes into account the similarity of the current symptom constellation with the respective symptom constellation of the stored findings and the severity of the stored finding; f) the symptom constellation pertaining to at least one finding of the current list of findings is plotted on the display device as pathology if the current list of findings includes at least one finding; and g) the comparator compares, following each case of symptom modification, the current list of suggestions for symptoms against the symptoms of the findings of the current list of findings, and re-sorts the current list of suggestions, and immediately outputs the current list of suggestions.

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Claim 2:
2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the display device comprises at least one view area and at least one selection area and wherein the output of the object image occurs in the view area and the output of the at least one pathology, in the selection area.