Critical Diagnostic Thinking in Respiratory Care

This book is organized into four logical sections. Section 1 is a thorough introduction to the processes involved in developing critical diagnostic thinking. It demonstrates how to use information from the patient's history and physical examination to develop the differential diagnosis: an ordered list of likeliest causes. The other sections of the book present cases typical of three broad clinical settings: outpatient, inpatient non-ICU, and ICU. Each of the chapters in these sections begins with a clinical vignette posing an important respiratory problem with an accompanying description of the history and physical examination. This is followed by a review of the common and uncommon causes of the patient's symptom(s). The likelihood of a specific cause of the symptom is then analyzed using the specific features of the patient's history and physical examination. Finally, each chapter closes with a section on some of the more common pitfalls in diagnosing the patient.