Skip to main content
Elsevier
View Cart

McGee's Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis

  • 6th Edition - June 29, 2025
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Steven McGee
  • Language: English

Emphasizing the most important physical signs needed to determine an underlying condition or disease, McGee's Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis, Sixth Edition, offers vital… Read more

Purchase options

Info / Buy

Description

Emphasizing the most important physical signs needed to determine an underlying condition or disease, McGee's Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis, Sixth Edition, offers vital insight and instruction on the fundamental clinical skill of physical diagnosis. Internationally renowned author Dr. Steven McGee clearly shows how to pare down the multiple tests needed to confirm a diagnosis, saving both the physician and patient time, energy, and expense. This unique resource provides evidence-based guidance that, combined with modern technologic testing, will grant clinicians the keys to outstanding patient care.

Key features

  • Features a reader-friendly outline format, including dozens of "EBM boxes" and accompanying "EBM ruler" illustrations
  • Contains thorough updates from cover to cover, including revisions to ensure currency with research developments, updated references, numerous new physical findings, and updated EBM boxes with recalculated likelihood ratios
  • Features a unique, up-to-date, evidence-based calculator online that enables you to easily determine probability using likelihood ratios
  • Covers the conditions and diseases you’re most likely to encounter, including stance and gait, jaundice, anemia, obesity, Cushing syndrome, mental status examination, blood pressure, diabetic retinopathy, hearing, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, heart murmurs, abdominal pain and tenderness, stroke, and much more
  • Begins each chapter with a list of Key Teaching Points, intended for readers desiring quick summaries and for teachers constructing concise bedside lessons
  • An eBook version is included with purchase. The eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references, with the ability to search, customize your content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud. Additional digital ancillary content may publish up to 6 weeks following the publication date

Readership

Family medicine; internal medicine - physicians and residents

Table of contents

PART 1 Introduction

1. What is Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis?

PART 2 Understanding the Evidence

2. Diagnostic Accuracy of Physical Findings

3. Using the Tables in This Book

4. Using the EBM Calculator (Elsevier ebooks +)

5. Reliability of Physical Findings

PART 3 General Appearance of the Patient

6. Mental Status Examination

7. Stance and Gait

8. Jaundice

9. Cyanosis

10. Anemia

11. Hypovolemia

12. Protein-Energy Malnutrition and Weight Loss

13. Obesity

14. Cushing Syndrome

PART 4 Vital Signs

15. Pulse Rate and Contour

16. Abnormalities of Pulse Rhythm

17. Blood Pressure

18. Temperature

19. Respiratory Rate and Abnormal Breathing Patterns

20. Pulse Oximetry

PART 5 Head and Neck

21. The Pupils

22. Diabetic Retinopathy

23. The Red Eye

24. Hearing

25. Thyroid and Its Disorders

26. Meninges

27. Peripheral Lymphadenopathy

PART 6 The Lungs

28. Inspection of the Chest

29. Palpation and Percussion of the Chest

30. Auscultation of the Lungs

31. Ancillary Tests

PART 7 Selected Pulmonary Disorders

32. Pneumonia

33. Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

34. Pulmonary Embolism

35. Pleural Effusion

PART 8 The Heart

36. Inspection of the Neck Veins

37. Percussion of the Heart

38. Palpation of the Heart

39. Auscultation of the Heart: General Principles

40. The First and Second Heart Sounds

41. Third and Fourth Heart Sounds

42. Miscellaneous Heart Sounds

43. Heart Murmurs: General Principles

PART 9 Selected Cardiac Disorders

44. Aortic Stenosis

45. Aortic Regurgitation

46. Miscellaneous Heart Murmurs

47. Disorders of the Pericardium

48. Congestive Heart Failure

49. Coronary Artery Disease

PART 10 Abdomen

50. Inspection of the Abdomen

51. Palpation and Percussion of the Abdomen

52. Abdominal Pain and Tenderness

53. Auscultation of the Abdomen

PART 11 Extremities

54. Peripheral Vascular Disease

55. Diabetic Foot

56. Edema and Deep Vein Thrombosis

57. Examination of the Musculoskeletal System

PART 12 Neurologic Examination

58. Visual Field Testing

59. Nerves of the Eye Muscles (III, IV, and VI): Approach to Diplopia

60. Miscellaneous Cranial Nerves

61. Examination of the Motor System: Approach to Weakness

62. Examination of the Sensory System

63. Examination of the Reflexes

64. Disorders of the Nerve Roots, Plexuses, and Peripheral Nerves

65. Coordination and Cerebellar Testing

PART 13 Selected Neurologic Disorders

66. Tremor and Parkinson Disease

67. Hemorrhagic Versus Ischemic Stroke

68. Acute Vertigo and Imbalance

69. Examination of Functional Neurological Disorders

PART 14 Examination in the Intensive Care Unit

70. Examination of Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

Review quotes

"...an excellent treatise on the use of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to quantitatively define the usefulness of a wide variety of clinical signs and physical maneuvers in helping to make an accurate diagnosis in symptomatic patients.... The book’s purpose is to offer the accuracy of the physical signs and maneuvers used to affirm or negate the presence of diseases in individuals.... The book achieves its aim in an exceptional fashion through an exhaustive review of the literature to determine which physical signs have evidence to support their use in the diagnostic process.... The writing is clear, and the material is very well organized. There are many excellent evidence-based tables in the book but no illustrations.... This book is an exceptional contribution to the field of medicine. Placing the appendix online so that it can be accessed on rounds or at the bedside is a vast improvement and is highly needed. This book is highly recommended as a reference to determine if, for example, hearing an S3 gallop or measuring capillary refill time is diagnostically helpful." Review by Charles Allred, MD (Smoky Hill Family Medicine Residency), ©Doody's Review Service 2025. Doody's Score: 99, 5 Stars!

Review of the previous edition:
"This is a well-organized and integrated presentation of a very necessary component of medical practice, physical examination findings and how to apply them. The examination findings are described along with their clinical significance and in many cases the evidence-based predictive diagnostic value. Tables and references are numerous and helpful, making this a good choice for learners, including medical students, resident physicians, advanced clinician learners, and their teachers. Those in clinical practice, particularly in primary care, who might wish a review of examination findings and their application from an evidence-based perspective, also will find this book useful." -©Doody’s Review Service, 2022 Dennis Gingrich, MD, Retired Professor (Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine) Doody's Score: 4 Stars!

Product details

  • Edition: 6
  • Latest edition
  • Published: June 29, 2025
  • Language: English

About the author

SM

Steven McGee

Dr. McGee is an internationally known and respected expert in physical examination and assessment, pain management, and education in general internal medicine. One of the most senior physicians in the University of Washington and Seattle Veteran’s Administration Health Systems, Dr. McGee has more than 400 publications to his credit.
Affiliations and expertise
Steven McGee, MD, Professor Emeritus, Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

View book on ScienceDirect

Read McGee's Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis on ScienceDirect