Updated for the 2014 edition of CMDT: Chapter 2. Common Symptoms

New or unexplained symptoms account for about half of all office visits; the remainder of visits are for ongoing care of established medical conditions. Evidence-based symptom evaluation combines knowledge of a symptom's clinical epidemiology with disease candidates according to Bayesian principles, such that the likelihood of a specific disease is a function of patient demographics, comorbidities, and clinical features. This knowledge can help support decisions about further testing or treatment or whether to perform additional testing before treatment, or to treat without further testing....
Source: AccessMedicine Updates - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: news