Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:27:52.495Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2.12 - How to Integrate Clinical Findings with Laboratory Investigations to Form a Differential Diagnosis

from Section 2 - Diagnosis, Assessment, Investigation, Monitoring and Data Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Ned Gilbert-Kawai
Affiliation:
The Royal Liverpool Hospital
Debashish Dutta
Affiliation:
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, Harlow
Carl Waldmann
Affiliation:
Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading
Get access

Summary

Key Learning Points

  1. 1. Clinical reasoning is used to interpret and integrate our knowledge into a complete decision-making process.

  2. 2. Identify relevant key information from clinical history, examination and investigations using a standardised approach.

  3. 3. Describe the problem using this key information to help formulate a diagnosis or clinical syndrome (keeping it relevant and in clinical context).

  4. 4. Remember, a clinical syndrome is not the diagnosis. Look for the cause.

  5. 5. Structure the problem by applying the key information to a structured framework to create a diagnosis/clinical syndrome/differential.

Type
Chapter
Information
Intensive Care Medicine
The Essential Guide
, pp. 79 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Further Reading

Strong, E. 2013. How to create a differential diagnosis. Part 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrLPY_8CykGoogle Scholar
Strong, E. 2013. How to create a differential diagnosis. Part 2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEbonwYPNVkGoogle Scholar
Strong, E. 2013. How to create a differential diagnosis. Part 3. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n48zY7GLqc0Google Scholar
Victor-Chmil, J. Critical thinking vs clinical reasoning vs clinical judgement. Nurse Educ 2013;38:34–6.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×