Improvements in the fuzzy model of determining the severity of respiratory failure

The objective of this paper is the determination of the severity of respiratory distress of a patient in an intensive care unit using fuzzy set theory. The determination of the degree of respiratory distress is of extreme clinical relevance. The authors have previously (Internat. J. of Med. Informatics, vol. 63, pp. 101-107, 2001) proposed treating the problem by using the theory of fuzzy sets, and the computer implementation of this model was considered. The problem was modelled as a fuzzy multicriteria decision-making problem. In this paper, the use of fuzzy measures and of the corresponding Choquet integral are considered in order to improve the authors´ previous results. The improvement is due to the fact that the application of fuzzy measures can take into account the interaction between the criteria. Results are given and the directions for possible further work are pointed out.