Surgery – Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-28
2003-04-15
Hindenburg, Max F. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
C705S003000, C128S920000, C128S923000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06547727
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a health checkup system which operates to diagnose the health status of a checkup receiver; and, more particularly, the invention relates to a technique which is applicable to a health checkup system to predict the risk of a checkup receiver suffering from a disease based on the combined results of a clinical examination, a question-and-answer examination and a genetic examination.
When a person wishes to know the status of his health or to predict how much risk he or she has of suffering a certain disease he or she may possibly be exposed to while leading a certain life-style, it is general to obtain a health checkup.
In a conventional health checkup, the health status of a health checkup receiver is examined through a clinical examination and a question-and-answer examination, and the health status of the health checkup receiver is diagnosed on the basis of the results of these examinations compared with the average results obtained from healthy persons. Receiving such a health checkup, a person can roughly know the possibility of developing a certain disease and utilize this result as a guidance to improve his daily life style.
In recent years, meanwhile, there has been increased use of a genetic examination for detecting gene mutation in a sample, such as blood. A medical examination of this kind is only applicable to diseases for which the genes which cause the disease have been determined. Despite this, the above-described examination is advantageous in that it makes a precritical diagnosis possible. Therefore, this examination is often conducted as a prenatal checkup to diagnose gene-caused diseases with the mutation of specific genes being known as their causes.
Incidentally, a system of predicting the life-time incidence of Alzheimer's disease, which is capable of accurately obtaining data constituting a basis for the judgment of an early examination and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-261029.
The above-described conventional health checkup to diagnose the health status of a checkup receiver by comparing the results of a clinical examination and a question-and-answer examination with average values makes it hard to conduct a diagnosis incorporating personal differences.
The above genetic examination is conducted with the checkup receiver's personal genetic difference taken into account. However, it is difficult to perform a diagnosis using only a genetic examination, since it is not applicable to diseases for which the genes which cause the disease are not determined or diseases depending on various genes and environmental factors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, the present invention has as its object to resolve the above problems and to provide a technique to enhance the precision of calculation of a value of a health checkup receiver's risk to a disease.
According to the present invention, a check receiver's risk of suffering from a disease is predicted based on a combination of the results of a clinical examination, the results of a question-and-answer examination and the results of a genetic examination in a health checkup system for predicting a risk of incidence of a disease of a checkup receiver who has received a health checkup.
According to the present invention, the results of a clinical examination indicating the bio-information of a checkup receiver, the results of a question-and-answer examination indicating information including the habitual activities of the checkup receiver and the results of a genetic examination indicating the genetic characteristics of the checkup receiver as an individual are inputted as checkup receiver information showing the possibilities of affecting the incidence of a disease obtained with respect to the checkup receiver who has received a health checkup.
By comparing the inputted checkup receiver information with risk parameters obtained from a disease incidence ratio calculated for other persons in the past, a risk value of the possible incidence of a disease is found and diagnostic messages and remedial measures are indicated in correspondence with the obtained risk value.
According to the present invention, as described above, since the results of a genetic examination showing the genetic characteristics of a checkup receiver are used for a diagnosis in addition to the results of a clinical examination indicating the bio-information of the checkup receiver and the results of the question-and-answer examination including the checkup receiver's habitual activities, it is possible to diagnose the checkup receiver's liability to contact a life-dependent disease based on a certain life-style and genetic characteristics, thereby providing a diagnosis which matches the characteristics of a health checkup receiver.
Since environmental factors such as life habits and the results of a genetic examination are diagnosed together, it is possible to diagnose a disease which cannot be diagnosed only through an examination of genes which are known to cause a disease, thereby widening the range of diseases it can diagnose.
As described above, the health checkup system according to the present invention conducts a risk prediction of a disease of a checkup receiver based on the results of a genetic examination indicating the genetic characteristics of an individual together with the results of a clinical examination and a question-and-answer examination, so that the precision of the calculation of a risk value with respect to a health checkup receiver can be enhanced.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5935060 (1999-08-01), Iliff
patent: 6246975 (2001-06-01), Rivonelli et al.
patent: 6248063 (2001-06-01), Barnhill et al.
patent: 6269339 (2001-07-01), Silver
Hashiguchi Takeshi
Matsuo Hitoshi
Noguchi Kiyoteru
Shimada Kazuyuki
Takeuchi Hiroshi
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Astorino Michael
Hindenburg Max F.
Hitachi , Ltd.
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