Microcomputer Applications and Technology

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MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY References 1. Dahlin DC, Unni KK: Bone Tumors: General Aspeas and Data on 8,542 Cases, 4th ed. Springfield, Charles C Thomas, 1986, pp 12-15. 2. Schajowicz F: Tumors and Tumorlike Lesions of Bone and Joints. New York, Springer-Verlag, 1981. 3. Mirra JH: Bone Tumors: Diagnosis and Treatment. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Co, 1980.

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Fig 2. The Front Card of the "Tumors of Bone" Stack.

Fig 3. The Age Plotting Card.

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Acknowledgments The author thanks Dr Joel Kahn for his assistance with this project.

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Tumors of Bone—A HyperCard™ Stack for Help in the Diagnosis of Bone Tumors Bone tumors may pose difficult diagnostic problems for orthopedic surgeons, radiologists, and surgical pathologists because they are so rare. A team approach with evaluation of the clinical features, radiographs, and histology together will result in the most accurate diagnosis. Because of the rarity of these tumors it is often necessary to consult an expert at a medical center where large numbers of bone tumors are seen, and to review the medical literature before making a diagnosis on a bone tumor case. In particular, the questions, "How often does this tumor occur at this site?" and "Does this tumor occur in patients of this age?" are often answered by consulting one or more of the large published series of bone tumors. I have designed a HyperCard™ stack for use on Macintosh computers that is an interface for retrieval of data about the bones in which certain tumors may occur and about the distribution of patient ages for any particular bone tumor. HyperCard is a graphical interface used principally for database applications which is associated with a high-level programming language called Hypertalk, which permits fairly easy design of special purpose databases. HyperCard uses a visual metaphor of a stack of index cards. Much of the power of the system lies in the user's ability to move quickly between cards and stacks as the stored information or his interests dictate. The "Tumors of Bone" stack is comprised of three major types of cards. The first is the Data Card (Fig 1) into which the user may enter data from any of the large series of bone tumors. The stack easily accommodates the Mayo Clinic series published in the front of Dahlin and Unni's book.1 Other large series include those published by Schajowicz2 and Mirra,3 or the user can enter data from his own hospital. The business end of the stack is the Front Card (Fig 2). Clicking on a bone in the skeleton picture generates a list of tumors occurring in that bone in decreasing order of frequency. Selecting one of the listed bone tumor names transfers the user to the Age Plotting Card (Fig 3) where a histogram of the distribution of the selected tumor by patient age is shown. Since the user has relatively easy access to the code that drives this simple stack, modifications are not difficult. The user might, for example, add extra data fields and cards to permit the comparison of multiple series simultaneously. This HyperCard stack will be available as freeware on national bulletin board services—Mark L. Mitchell, MD, Department of Pathology, Christiana Hospital, Medical Center of Delaware, Newark, DE 19718Q