100 Diagnostic Dilemmas in Clinical Medicine

A 57-year-old man presented to the emergency department complaining of a worsening cough. The cough had been present for approximately two weeks and was productive of green sputum. The patient had seen his general practitioner one week earlier and taken a course of amoxicillin for a presumed lower respiratory tract infection with no improvement of symptoms. He was febrile, experiencing frequent headaches and a feeling of general malaise, and had been unable to eat solid food for the last 48 hours due to facial pain on chewing. You have been asked to assess him and devise a management plan...

100 Diagnostic Dilemmas in Clinical Medicine presents 100 real-life scenarios seen in the hospital and community setting. A succinct summary of the patient’s history, examination and any initial investigations is followed by a detailed consideration of the diagnosis and management of each case, in the short, medium and, where appropriate, long term.

Making speedy and appropriate clinical decisions, and choosing the best course of action to take as a result, is one of the most important and challenging parts of training to become a doctor. These extended true-to-life cases will teach students and junior doctors to recognize important medical conditions and to develop their diagnostic and management skills.

Key features:

• Extended case studies presented in an easy-to-read format, presenting patient history, examination, investigations and differential diagnosis
• Readers are guided through the clinician’s sequence of thoughts and actions as they consider how to manage the case appropriately in the short, medium and, if necessary, long term
• Plentiful illustrations supplement the text
• A broad range of conditions is covered, from acquired haemophilia to intestinal tuberculosis

Kerry Layne, Consultant in Acute Medicine Department, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.