Throughout our medical training, we are always learning how to look, listen and feel. These skills allow us to elicit critical signs that help narrow the differential diagnoses and identify the disease process causing our patient’s illness. This allows
us to narrow the field when initiating investigations into the cause – be it a virus or gene, trauma, immunological insult etc.
This book is not designed to show
you how to elicit these signs. There are a number of texts, most notably Talley and O’Connor’s Clinical Examination and the similarly named Macleod’s, which can guide the novice through the many and varied system examinations. Nor will it explain the disease process in minute pathological detail as, again, there is a plethora of medical references available for that purpose.
The focus of this text is on the mechanism underlying the clinical sign –
or why particular signs occur and what they mean. Most medical students and junior doctors can recall numerous occasions when they have been asked why clubbing occurs, what the mechanism of peripheral oedema is in hepatic failure, or similar questions that often lead to a stunned silence in front of their favourite (or least favourite) professor. This book will not only help you prepare for the Q and A session most consultants love to spring on students and junior doctors, it will also help you study for practical examinations such as OSCEs and long cases. In short, if you can explain the mechanism, you know not just the sign but its significance as well. This knowledge will serve you in good stead not only as a student or junior but in your own capacity as educator. The most common questions you will hear from patients and their families are ‘What causes that?’ and ‘What does it mean?’ The ability to provide answers simply and without jargon will go a long way towards creating an impression of you as an able practitioner…
us to narrow the field when initiating investigations into the cause – be it a virus or gene, trauma, immunological insult etc.
This book is not designed to show
you how to elicit these signs. There are a number of texts, most notably Talley and O’Connor’s Clinical Examination and the similarly named Macleod’s, which can guide the novice through the many and varied system examinations. Nor will it explain the disease process in minute pathological detail as, again, there is a plethora of medical references available for that purpose.
The focus of this text is on the mechanism underlying the clinical sign –
or why particular signs occur and what they mean. Most medical students and junior doctors can recall numerous occasions when they have been asked why clubbing occurs, what the mechanism of peripheral oedema is in hepatic failure, or similar questions that often lead to a stunned silence in front of their favourite (or least favourite) professor. This book will not only help you prepare for the Q and A session most consultants love to spring on students and junior doctors, it will also help you study for practical examinations such as OSCEs and long cases. In short, if you can explain the mechanism, you know not just the sign but its significance as well. This knowledge will serve you in good stead not only as a student or junior but in your own capacity as educator. The most common questions you will hear from patients and their families are ‘What causes that?’ and ‘What does it mean?’ The ability to provide answers simply and without jargon will go a long way towards creating an impression of you as an able practitioner…
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