Early Clinical Diagnosis

Why yet another book on clinical diagnosis? The profusion ofmedical text booksfor studentsand young postgraduates is known to all ofus, and so also is the time-consuming and frequently frus­ trating search in these books for the relevant facts we need, so often sub­ merged in a mass of information which we do not really require. The traditional textbook that most clinicians have used in their training may well be written in the leisurely, discursive and unstructured style much loved by our teachers of old, but perhaps out of place in modern medical education where knowledge is so rapidly expanding and time available for its assimi­ lation rapidly contracting. It iswith these considerationsinmindthat wefelt itwould beusefulto pro­ vide a clear, concise, easily readable and well-illustrated book on the essen­ tials of clinical diagnosis. Each chapter deals with a medical problem commonly encountered in dailyclinicalpracticeand beginswith alistofthepossiblecausesand apracti­ cal perspective of their prevalence in general practice and in hospital prac­ tice; the age distribution and the clinicalsignificanceofthe various disorders is also pointed out. The majorpartofthe chapter isconcernedwith thediag­ nostic approach to the particular problem and emphasizes the importance of symptomsand signsin reachingthecorrectdiagnosis, as well asthe value and limitation of the investigational approach to the diagnosis. The book emphasizes the fundamental clinical skills ofhistory-taking and clinicalexamination in diagnosis, so frequently and mistakenlysubordinated to the investigational approach which is often disappointing in the limited diagnostic help which it does provide.