An expert adviser for oliguria occurring on the intensive care unit

An expert system is described that gives advice about oliguria occurring on the intensive care unit. Explanations are constructed by finding probable paths in a causal network of pathophysiological states. The expert-system shell developed for this application is written in Prolog and runs on the IBM PC. Investigative tasks are scheduled using an agenda and can be suspended and resumed as required. Although the shell is general purpose, it supports the definition of knowledge-representation languages tailored to a particular application. This facility is used to create a frame notation for the representation of pathophysiological states.<>