US1988634A - Diagnosticum - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 22, 1935.

D. D. sToNEcYPHER 1,988,634

vDIAGNOSTICUM Filed Aug. 3l, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l Ear, Nose, Throat ,lalze wen numtur Sttnrnrgs.

Jan. 22, 1935. D. D. sToNEcYPHER 1,988,634

-DIAGNosTICUM Filed Aug. 3l, 1935 2. Sheets-Sheet 2 6. Ears, Deafness (of one or both) Ear, Nose, Throat -3` Y l: 'IIE= c yD :l

q a i 1. Anemia (Lovi"Red"Count) Ear, Nose, Throat 5 9 Z 3 lil l; :a

z8. Eer, Drum-head Enlarged cr Bulging Il 1 1 L El I l yleknmntur Patented Jan. 22, `1935 l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DIAGNOSTICUM n `David D. Stonecypher,Nebraska City, Nebr. l Application August'sl', 1933, serial No. 687,702

l iclaim. (o1. `85--12) This invention relates to a means for determining diagnosis and while it is more especially designed for the diagnosis of diseases itcan be used eiciently in other fields of investigation or classi- 5 cation, the existence of any cause, fact or category being'sought or ascertained by a study of the known effects thereof, or of the known related facts, gures or other data, vthe various combinationsof which are such as toy indicate with varyingfdegrees of probability, the causes, facts or and possibilities have been possible.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a key card or the like on which are arranged all possible conclusions apertaining to the subject under investigation and to employ in connection therewith 'screen cards or the like selected because of predetermined symptoms or other characteristics and provided with openings through which will appear those conclusions portrayed on the key card which contain the symptoms or characteristics indicated by the particular key card.

It is a further object to provide screen cards or the like having openings of different sizes to indicate whether or not the exposed conclusions are certain, probable, or possible where the selected symptoms o-r characteristics are present in the matter under investigation.

In applying the improvements to diagnosis of diseases the result is `obtained through the knowledge of symptoms of the various diseases under consideration, it being understood that the invention is to be used only where all of the symptoms point to a single disease.

With the foregoing and other objects in View which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel details of construction and combinations of parts and in certain steps of the method hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the claims, it being understood that changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts and in the disclosed method without departing lfrom the spirit of the invention as claimed.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention has been shown.

In said drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a key card for use in diagnosing diseases of the ear, nose and throat.

Figure 2 is a similar View showing a symptom or screen card applied thereto for eliminating some of the indicated diseases and for partly eliminating other diseases in different degrees toindicate rbeen eliminated.y

' Figure 5 is a similar view showing the addition vof another symptom or screen card resulting in the elimination' of all buty one disease, thereby l5 giving 'a nal and deniteconclusion based uponr the indicatedsymptoms. Referring to the gures by characters of Vreference 1 designates a 4cardscreen or the like on which are printed or otherwise displayed the names of various diseases and other conditions possible where ailments develop in the ear, nose and throat. These names, which have been indicated generally at 2, 3, A, B, C, D and E are spaced apart in their respective columns.

Associated with each key card 1is a series of symptoms or other screen cards somerof which have been indicated at 4, 5, 6 and 7. One of these cards is provided for each symptom present in one or more of `the diseases listed on the key card. For example, the symptom or screen card 4 4is provided forA indicating those diseases in which a symptom is a pain in the region of the ear. Openings are formed in this card 4'as f shown at`8 and are so located as to fully expose the names of vthose diseases yin which a pain in the region of the ear is a certain or positive symptom. In some diseases such a symptom indicates probability of those diseases while in some other diseases a pain in the region of the ear indicates only a possibility of those ailments. For the purpose of indicating these distinctions of certainties, probabilitiesV and possibilities, the openings are made of dilerent widths. The full width openings fully exposing the names of the ailments thereunder and designated at 8 indicate certainties. Narrower openings exposing only portions of the names of the ailments theref under indicate probabilities and have been designated at 9. Narrower openings or slits through which the indicated ailments'are barely visible, indicate possibilities. These have been illustrated at 10.

By referring to Figures 1 and 2 it will be noted that when the card 4 is applied various ailments,

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including osteophlebitic, mastoiditis, indicated at 3 will be exposed whereas certain other ailments will be only partly exposed. Among these are Septic sore throat indicated at A and Necrosis of mandible indicated at C, both of which are only partly exposed through very narrow slits 10 thereby indicating that there is a slight indication of these ailments or, in other words, that there is a possibility of either ailment being `present.l Another aihnent indicated at B, namely, ,"Acute laryngo-tracheitisk is exposed to a greater extent by the wide slot 9 thereby vindicating a probability of that ailment.

Following the applicationof the symptom card 4 the diagnosis can be continued by placing*` thereover cards identified by other symptoms. For instance, if the patient is deaf in one or both ears, the card 5 is placed over card as ini-Eigure :3. This results in covering up those diseases in which deafness is not a symptom and leaves a reduced number of ailments in which deafness `isfeither a certainty or. a probability. VAmong those..ail ments Vthus eliminated are those indicated at A, B and. Cv which had vpreviously been considered possibilities .or probabilities but two .of `the ail- 1.

exposed, .namelyl osteoplilebitic mastoiditis as indicated at 3. Thus through a system of elimination it becomes possible to determine with a reasonable degree of accuracy any ailment in the group for which the system is designed.

Although only five symptom or screen cards have been illustrated, it is to be understood that one of these cards is to be provided for every symptom which is certain, probable or possible in connection with any one or all of the ailments listed on the .key card and each.of these screen or symptom cards will have displayed/,thereon not onlythe symptom appertaining thereto but also a number whereby the cards can be maintained in regular order and easily located by means of an indexof symptoms.

While the present invention is designed privmarily for use in the diagnosis of diseases. it is possible,as heretofore stated, to follow the same method of elimination in other fields oi. investigation or classication, the present improvements being .useful 11n-,that the symptoms cannot only be usedfor indicating certaintiesbut'also for in- 'dicating` .probabilities and possibilities.'

`What is vclaimed is:

over Vthe Akeycard, `eachscreen Acardfbeing provided for adistinguishing.characteristic `of one or more of .said conclusions Iand' having .means .f ythereon for indicating said characteristic, there ,being apluralityof openings in-eachfcard-for eX- Vposing those conclusions to which the said characteristic applies, theopeningsvbeing of dii'erent -sizes to indicate the certainty,probability and possibility, respectively, of the presence` of `said characteristicin the exposed conclusions. p

' DAVID D. STONE'CYPHER.

A diagnosticum includin'gxakey card havingy vseparate conclusions `displayed thereon, and a plurality of screen `cards adaptedto vbe placed

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