Prediction of Low Back Pain Using a Fuzzy Logic Algorithm

Microinjury and inflammation on the connective tissues in low back pain (LBP) patients may be led by a chronic, local increase in stress. This study aims at discovering if the intensity level of the LBP can be identified objectively. 59 healthy voluntary subjects as a control group, and 110 patients as LBP group, in total 169 subjects, participated to the study. The skin resistance and visual analog scale (VAS) values have been measured for all the subjects. These values have been accepted as the input variables for the developed fuzzy logic algorithm. The fuzzy logic algorithm identifying the healthy and LBP subjects evaluated the level of the LBP was found to be an advantageous approach in addition to existing unbiased approaches. The intensity level of the LBP evaluated subjectively can be assessed objectively using the current fuzzy logic algorithm. Since the fuzzy logic approach is non-invasive, there is no requirement for any surgical operation to diagnose the patients. Thus instead of the VAS method which is a subjective method, the presented objective method may be used for the scaling the intensity level of the pain.