Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis 4th Edition – Steven McGee

Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis
Since the publication of the third edition of this book, many new studies on physical diagnosis have appeared, studies that refine application of bedside findings and further define how they detect disease, solve clinical problems, and predict the patient’s clinical course. The fourth edition of Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis summarizes all of this new knowledge by updating every chapter from the third edition and adding almost 200 new studies to the book’s Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Boxes. This edition covers several findings and clinical problems not addressed in earlier editions, such as Cheyne-Stokes respiration, subclavian stenosis, fever of unknown origin, portopulmonary hypertension, and localization of stroke. In addition, every chapter now begins with a list of Key Teaching Points, essential lessons that teachers can use when creating their own plans for bedside teaching. Finally, there is a new chapter on how to use the Elsevier online EBM calculator, which quickly calculates post-test probabilities using the likelihood ratios supplied in each chapter.
Several investigators contributed extra information not published in their original work, including Dr. Liang-Tsai Hsiao (fever of unknown origin), Dr. Farrukh Jafri (meningitis), Dr. Mark Drazner (heart failure), and Dr. Larry Jacobs (portopulmonary hypertension). I appreciate very much their generosity in responding to my queries.
The purpose of this revised edition is to provide clinicians an up-to-date summary of the accuracy of the traditional physical examination, a skill that remains as essential today as it was a century ago. Using the information in this book, clinicians can examine their patients, gleaning the most from bedside findings, and, together with modern technologic testing, provide their patients the most advanced diagnostic reasoning and the best of care.

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