Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Human health cure as a complex network






Science is a mixed field of knowledge. The most important science for our regular life is the Medical Science . The aims of Medical Science are - 1.examine the signs and symptoms based on the complain of the patients and knowledge base of doctor, 2. draw a differential diagnosis 3. Do tests(blood,Cerebrospinal fluid,X-Rays,MRI,CT-Scan etc) to make a confirm diagnosis of the cause, 4. preventing disease from spreading and healing of the damaged cells, maintain proper balance between all ions and materials which consist our physical entity ; most importantly to save lives and makes us healthy. 

Complex network is a different entity than other complex mathematical models-lattices or random graphs. Complex networks display non-trivial topological features, with patterns of connection between their elements that are neither purely regular nor purely random like - heavy tail in the degree distribution, a high clustering coefficient, assortativity or disassortativity among vertices , community structure, and hierarchical structure,reciprocity, triad significance profile and other features. Medical science is an example of complex network where some parts are classical- obey all the rules,some parts do not,some parts are totally unknown. 

The functionality of every living being is the resultant of interactions of inter-cellular and intracellular components and between external and internal components. From the resent research it is known that the potential complexity of human interaction network is daunting-approx. 25000 protein encoding genes,1000 metabolites,undefined number of distinct proteins,functional RNA & DNA molecules. These also varies according to sex type, age(children or aged or young) , geographical area ,local environment,race , family history etc. Now at every moment reactions are taking place in between external disease agents and internal cellular components- complex networks can be developed over such a system.
Now the nodes of the network can be following - 

1. Examine the signs and symptoms
- after taking patients complain about problems following things are checked- 

a) Taking the history of the patients properly

i) Personal History- patients habits,sleeping style,eating,bowel and bladder habits.

ii) Family History – Some diseases(HIV,Hepatitis,Gene abnormality) spreads through genes so family history(Parents,Grandparents,Siblings,other family members) is very important.

iii) Surgical History : whether patient had a history of surgery which can recurrent or cause secondary abnormality- eg. History of vertical abdominal incision(in abdominal surgery) can cause incisional hernia.

iv) Traumatic History: Traumatic history can cause memory loss(brain trauma) , Rupture of an organ of body (spleen rupture in an accident which can change body functionality) etc.

b) General survey – temperature(fever), pallor, cyanosis,jaundice,clubbing,edema, swelling,pulse,Blood pressure etc.

c) Local examination - local examination of body parts eg- local patch/discoloration in skin diseases, tenderness(pain by touch)in right iliac fossa in young females can be due to acute appendicitis.

2. Differential Diagnosis:
These all features can act as nodes of the network to make a initial differential diagnosis of the cause of the patients.

3. Confirm Diagnosis :
Initial differential diagnosis lead to surest diagnosis by ruling out some differential diagnosis by collecting features from tests and knowledge base of the doctor: 

i)Blood test : hemoglobin (level decrease suggesting anemia/blood loss/leukemia etc) level, wbc count (infection level), RBC count , peripheral smear test , sodium ,potassium other ion tests etc.

ii) X-Ray : shows bone fractures or cracks or used as a diagnosis of pneumonia, lung consolidation, abdominal distention etc

iii) CT-Scan – diagnosis of emphysema, fibrosis of lungs, brain trauma, brain diseases.
iv) MRI cardiac diseases, Brain diseases,liver diseases

v) ECG : for diagnosis of cardiovascular systems - myocardial ischemia , cardiomyopathies, heart attacks etc
There are also other useful tests urine tests, EEG, CECT, Esophagoscopy etc etc.
Now depending on these there are physiological,pathological,microbiological,biochemical etc changes are there in cellular components which all can act as nodes and connection between them can act as edges – so these all help to create part of the total complex network.


4. Preventing diseases from spreading :
Disease prevention can be done by
a) vaccination: 
 
I) schedule vaccination of children : Oral polio vaccination, measles , BCG etc routinely.
ii) other vaccination: hepatitis vaccination, DNA vaccination,immunization

b) Medicines :
      Proper medicines are used in optimum dose to prevent diseases from spreading (Antibiotics are used to cease bacterial growth, Anti-fungal to cease growth of fungus etc)- at every interval of taking doses physiological,pathological,microbiological,biochemical conditions of cellular components are to be checked by sign symptoms and tests.

c) Surgical :
    Operative treatment are necessary for to cure certain diseases – cholesystectomy(removal of gall bladder) for gall stone diseases, appendicectomy for appendicitis , orthopedics operations for bone fractures, bone marrow transplantation etc.

d) Radiotherapy: can be given to cure cancer diseases and tumors etc.

In the network 1,2,3,4 are the components within which a,b,c or I,ii,iii etc can act as another component and features are the node.
In all the above cases always you have to aware of the status of human being as a whole – whether situation improving or not by the above mentioned features and cell conditions. So if situation does not getting well or deteriorates then changing of treatment modes are necessary.
    So we can think of an intelligent complex network systems which consist of nodes (examinations of sign-symptoms,tests for diagnosis, preventing diseases from spreading and healing of the damaged cells, maintain proper balance between all ions and materials which consist our physical entity ).
    Now edges between these nodes determine the overall features present in a particular human body or race or a geographical area. Value of the nodes or edges determine the value of those features and these make a linear/nonlinear dependence equation- it value is the overall situation of a particular human being in a particular condition. There are so many factors which may be undetermined but can change the overall result significantly- these values can be estimated by other node or edge values of the Complex network but most of the times prediction of these values with high probability are really difficult and need more knowledge base and data value. This can be a significant challenge for modern world to develop this type of intelligent complex network for Human Disease.

For more reference here1
 here2

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