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Diagnostic reasoning in challenging cases
1Neurology, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA aaron.berkowitz@ucsf.edu.
Abstract:
Diagnostic reasoning relies on cognitive heuristics to recognise patterns of symptoms and signs in order to arrive at a diagnosis. These rules of thumb allow us to rapidly diagnose common conditions that present in typical ways. However, they may lead us astray when common conditions present atypically or when a patient has a rare condition or multiple conditions causing their constellation of symptoms, signs, and test results, rather than having a single diagnosis to explain them all. This article describes strategies to help counteract diagnostic pitfalls, to expand diagnostic possibilities and to make diagnostic progress with complex, multielement cases.
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