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Users' guides to the medical literature: XXIV. How to use an article on the clinical manifestations of disease. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Richardson, WS; Wilson, MC; Williams, JW; Moyer, VA; Naylor, CD
Published in: JAMA
August 16, 2000

Clinicians rely on knowledge about the clinical manifestations of disease to make clinical diagnoses. Before using research on the frequency of clinical features found in patients with a disease, clinicians should appraise the evidence for its validity, results, and applicability. For validity, 4 issues are important-how the diagnoses were verified, how the study sample relates to all patients with the disease, how the clinical findings were sought, and how the clinical findings were characterized. Ideally, investigators will verify the presence of disease in study patients using credible criteria that are independent of the clinical manifestations under study. Also, ideally the study patients will represent the full spectrum of the disease, undergo a thorough and consistent search for clinical findings, and these findings will be well characterized in nature and timing. The main results of these studies are expressed as the number and percentages of patients with each manifestation. Confidence intervals can describe the precision of these frequencies. Most clinical findings occur with only intermediate frequency, and since these frequencies are equivalent to diagnostic sensitivities, this means that the absence of a single finding is rarely powerful enough to exclude the disease. Before acting on the evidence, clinicians should consider whether it applies to their own patients and whether it has been superseded by new developments. Detailed knowledge of the clinical manifestations of disease should increase clinicians' ability to raise diagnostic hypotheses, select differential diagnoses, and verify final diagnoses. JAMA. 2000;284:869-875

Duke Scholars

Published In

JAMA

DOI

ISSN

0098-7484

Publication Date

August 16, 2000

Volume

284

Issue

7

Start / End Page

869 / 875

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Publications
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Diagnosis
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
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Richardson, W. S., Wilson, M. C., Williams, J. W., Moyer, V. A., & Naylor, C. D. (2000). Users' guides to the medical literature: XXIV. How to use an article on the clinical manifestations of disease. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA, 284(7), 869–875. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.7.869
Richardson, W. S., M. C. Wilson, J. W. Williams, V. A. Moyer, and C. D. Naylor. “Users' guides to the medical literature: XXIV. How to use an article on the clinical manifestations of disease. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group.JAMA 284, no. 7 (August 16, 2000): 869–75. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.7.869.
Richardson, W. S., et al. “Users' guides to the medical literature: XXIV. How to use an article on the clinical manifestations of disease. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group.JAMA, vol. 284, no. 7, Aug. 2000, pp. 869–75. Pubmed, doi:10.1001/jama.284.7.869.
Journal cover image

Published In

JAMA

DOI

ISSN

0098-7484

Publication Date

August 16, 2000

Volume

284

Issue

7

Start / End Page

869 / 875

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Publications
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Diagnosis
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences