In this paper a fuzzy relation-based framework is shown to be suitable to describe not only knowledge-based medical systems, explicitly using fuzzy approaches, but other ways of knowledge representation and processing. A particular example, the practically tested medical expert system Disco, is investigated from this point of view. The system is described in the fuzzy relation-based framework and compared with CADIAG-II-like systems that are a "pattern" for computer-assisted diagnosis systems based on a fuzzy technology. Similarities and discrepancies in - representation of knowledge, patient's information, inference mechanism and interpretation of results (diagnoses) - of the systems are established. This work can be considered as another step towards a general framework for computer-assisted medical diagnosis.
The paper applies some properties of the monotonous operators on the complete lattices to problems of the existence and the construction of the solutions to some fuzzy relational equations, inequations, and their systems, taking a complete lattice for the codomain lattice. The existing solutions are extremal - the least or the greatest, thus we prove some extremal problems related to fuzzy sets (in)equations. Also, some properties of upper-continuous lattices are proved and applied to systems of fuzzy sets (in)equations, in a special case of a meet-continuous complete codomain lattice.