Differential Diagnosis in Internal Medicine

Book excerpt: A pragmatic approach to differential diagnosis gives rapid, reliable answers to these questions: Which diseases are likely? What causes them? What are the typical characteristics of these disorders? Do they correspond with the symptoms in question? How can the preliminary diagnosis be confirmed? Siegenthaler's new Differential Diagnosis in Internal Medicine guides the reader through the challenges of differential diagnosis across the spectrum of internal medicine. Practice-orientated learning: Identify and understand key symptoms Consider the whole patient in selecting possible diseases Evaluate, exclude or confirm possible diagnoses Make the correct diagnosis using an appropriate diagnostic procedure Professor Walter Siegenthaler brings decades of international experience in clinical practice, teaching and writing on internal medicine to this new book. The book also benefits from close cooperation with the leaders of the specialist internal medicine departments at the University Hospital Zrich, and of other institutions and disciplines. The generalist and specialist aspects of internal medicine are thereby brought together to enhance the approach to the patient. The book is directed at medical students, residents in most areas of medicine, practitioners of internal medicine, general practitioners, dermatologists, neurologists and rheumatologists and those involved with the basic subjects in medicine who wish to gain competence and knowledge in internal medicine. From Symptom to Diagnosis: Organized by functional system and symptom constellations Covers all fields of internal medicine plus special treatment of subjects dermatology, neurology and rheumatology Typical findings and signs for differentiation of all common, rare and even exotic diseases with pathophysiological background information Nearly 1000 stunning figures and many instructive table-format overviews and differential diagnostic algorithms Differential diagnostic evaluation of common laboratory test results, including step-by-step plans for further diagnosis Learn by tracing the path from symptom to diagnosis, just as the physician encounters the situation in practice!