Main description:

British Medical Association Book Awards 2009 - First Prize Winner, Primary Care Category  Evidence-Based Diagnosis in Primary Care provides guidance on diagnosis in general practice, from the patient's first presentation with a symptom to the final establishment of a diagnosis or referral for further investigation. The book is divided into two parts: . Symptoms; which details the steps necessary to reach a provisional diagnosis when a patient presents; and . Disorders; in which the more detailed assessment of that initial diagnosis is described. This is the first book to be written about diagnosis in primary care that attempts to base its guidance on the research evidence. Enough information is provided on each symptom, or condition, to decide on the pre-test probability of each possible disorder, and how the symptoms, signs and investigations alter those probabilities to allow a conclusion to be reached about the most likely diagnosis. Evidence-Based Diagnosis in Primary Care also explains the principles of evidence-based diagnosis - with special emphasis on the issues raised by attempting an evidence-based approach in primary care - and clearly demonstrates the power, and the difficulties, of an evidence-based approach. Many chapters also feature 'red flags' - elements of the history or examination that should alert the practitioner to the possibility of serious disease, which is vital for general practice.

Contents:

Part I. Symptoms
Altered bowel habit
Bleeding in early pregnancy
Breast problems
A cardiac murmur
Chest pain
Constipation
Convulsions in adults
Cough
Deafness
Delirium
Diarrhoea
Dizziness
Dyspepsia
Dyspnoea
Dysuria and other acute urinary symptoms in men
Dysuria, nocturia, frequency and urgency in women
Erectile dysfunction
Fatigue
Fertility problems
Haematuria
Haemoptysis
Headache
Heartburn
Insomnia
Intermittent claudication
Lower urinary tract symptoms in men (LUTS)
A lump in the neck
Memory loss and dementia
Menorrhagia
Neck pain
Pain and tingling in the arm and hand
Pain in the face
Palpitations
A pigmented skin lesion
Pleuritic chest pain
Rectal bleeding
Rhinorrhoea
Sleepiness
The swollen leg
Syncope
Tinnitus
Tremor
Vaginal discharge
Weight loss

Part 2. Disorders
Acute coronary syndrome
Acute respiratory infections
Alcohol misuse
Anaemia
Anxiety disorders
Asthma
Benzodiazepine dependence
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Coeliac disease in adults
Colorectal carcinoma
Depressive illness
Diabetes
Eating disorders
Fibromyalgia
Food allergy
Heart failure
Hypertension
Hyperthyroidism
Hypothyroidism
Irritable bowel syndrome
Lung cancer
Meningitis
Obstructive sleep apnoea
Palliative care
Penicillin allergy
Pericarditis
Pneumothorax
Postnatal depression
Prostate cancer
Pulmonary embolism
Restless legs syndrome
Stable angina
Thrombophilia