Formation of a database with determination of the informativeness of its content for the development of a program for multifactor prediction of the occurrence of bruising in volunteer athletes

Abstract

Summary: Introduction. The development of forensic medicine in the era of modern information technologies requires the search for the most informative and accessible diagnostic methods. Materials and methods. The study was conducted on 22 volunteers (athletes). In them, 43 bruises were described, which were localized on the shoulder, trunk and thighs. Each bruise was photographed at the same time (23 time intervals) and described according to a standard scheme. Their localization, size, type of color and the presence of skin edema in the area of damage were determined. Results. At the first stage of work, all results were compiled into one table (data bank). A total of 795 bruises were described. An exploratory analysis of the data was then carried out, as a result of which all bruises that were less than an hour old were reduced to a whole numerical value (0 hours). The number of observations was reduced to 20. At the third stage, a comprehensive assessment of the correlation of diagnostic criteria for the age of occurrence of the remaining 707 bruises was carried out. It was established that the age of the bruise is reliably correlated with its color, and has a reliable negative correlation with its swelling. There is also a slight dependence on the age, sex of athletes, localization of injuries. At the next stages of the analysis, the hours of examination of bruises were transferred into 20 time intervals and their agglomerative clustering was carried out. Its purpose was to check the validity of these intervals. Which led to a reduction in their number from 20 to 15, within which the studied diagnostic criteria are not mixed. Conclusions. The most informative characteristics of a bruise are its color and the presence or absence of skin swelling. The obtained data are sufficient for the development of an experimental model of multifactor prediction of the age of bruises using neural networks. To increase the accuracy of the diagnosis, it is worth continuing the study to increase the number of observations.