Use of neural networks in medical diagnosis.

In recent years artificial neural networks have been popular both as a subject for research and as application tools in various domains. In this study, use of a neural network in the prediction of diagnostic probabilities is proposed. When the diagnostic probabilities of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were predicted both by linear regression and by a neural network in an empirical experiment, the predictions of the neural network were more accurate than those of linear regression. These results suggest that the use of a neural network should be considered whenever prediction of diagnosis is required.