Differential diagnosis in the clinic of internal diseases

Diagnosis of diseases of internal organs is complicated by the fact that many of them are not characterized by persistent symptoms and signs. The same disease can be manifested by different signs in individual patients. To this we should add that the same symptoms occur in many pathologies. Therefore, differential diagnosis is of special importance in the recognition of diseases.

Under this type of diagnosis is understood the recognition of the disease in a particular patient, despite the similarity of clinical symptoms with other diseases. Differential diagnostics consists of three obligatory stages.

The first stage is a conversation between the doctor and the patient, during which all complaints about health, the history of the appearance and development of the disease, and many other issues related to the patient's health state are clarified. During the interview with the patient, a diagnostic diagnosis appears, according to which the interpretation of the detected symptoms occurs.

Diagnosis continues at the second stage. The doctor conducts an attentive examination of the patient and examines it with the help of the basic methods: palpation, percussion and auscultation. This is an important stage in the definition of the disease, especially when urgent care is needed for the patient and there is no time for additional research. The detected signs of the disease are grouped according to their prevalence and possible communication with each other. Differential diagnosis is greatly simplified if the symptoms can be combined into syndromes. It becomes easy in the event that among the revealed symptoms it is possible to define the characteristic typical for any certain illness. True, such cases in therapeutic practice are extremely rare. Most often found in an objective examination of the patient signs and symptoms are not characteristic of one, but immediately for several pathologies.

At the next stage, instrumental and laboratory methods of research are used. The data obtained from additional survey methods help to clarify and confirm the information about the disease, obtained during the first two stages of the diagnostic study. For example, differential diagnosis of pneumonia ends when receiving the results of an X-ray examination with the definition of a typical darkening in the picture.

The starting point of the disease definition is the most revealing, leading symptom. For example, differential diagnosis of anemia begins with a low level of hemoglobin. Then they remember, list all those possible diseases in which this sign can occur, for which it is common. Comparing in turn the picture of this disease with a description of all those pathologies with which it resembles this symptom, they try to find possible differences between them. Based on the differences found, diseases that were previously thought about are gradually eliminated, thereby narrowing down the search circle. Ultimately, if, in making a comparison, the picture of the patient in this patient has more similarity and less difference with any pathology, they conclude that this patient has this disease. Thus, this method proves the correctness of the alleged diagnosis by eliminating all other possible diseases.

Differential diagnosis is a true manifestation of medical art. To reach heights in this form of pathology is not easy. Only the practical work of a doctor, a certain work experience makes it possible to master this method.