Differential Diagnosis Essay Example
Please make a 2 general response regarding differential diagnosis with at least 150 words each response.
Responses to peers should include examples from your clinical setting and case studies from the literature to contribute to the discussion.
It is crucial to appropriately utilize APA 7th ed. All assignments; group work discussions and responses require accurate and appropriate APA citations. It is recommended to use nursing literature, medical literature and ancillary research in other disciplines as necessary. Current citations are required. Differential Diagnosis Essay Example
Differential Diagnosis
General Response 1
A differential diagnosis is a second or third diagnosis made by the clinician in recognition of the fact that the presentation of the disease that he or she is seeing is similar to that of the differential diagnosis (Cook & Décary, 2019; First, 2022). History taking, physical examination, and diagnostic laboratory and other testing have traditionally defined the process of arriving at a diagnosis (Hammer & McPhee, 2018; Jameson et al., 2018). It is however the diagnostic testing part of the triad that may be critiqued. For instance, some laboratory tests have low validity and reliability and may mislead the clinician to diagnose a wrong condition or to miss the diagnosis altogether. One such laboratory test is the prostate-specific antigen or PSA. Clinically speaking, elevated levels of serum PSA levels usually mean the possibility of prostate malignancy that can therefore be confirmed by biopsy. To demonstrate its lack of reliance, only 30% of men found with the cut-off PSA level of 4 ng/ mL have prostate cancer on biopsy (Ball et al., 2019; Bickley, 2017). Risks include over diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and unwarranted exposure to invasive procedures like biopsy taking. Differential Diagnosis Essay Example
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
General Response 2
A number of differential diagnosis processes and steps are used in daily clinical practice. Three of these are the stroke process, the chest process, and the headache process (Cook & Décary, 2019; First, 2022). The problem with these processes is that they are not foolproof and are largely based on the clinician’s intuition and interpretation. This means there is no standard way of arriving at the same differential diagnosis by two clinicians using the same process. For instance, abdominal pain may be referred pain from a different part of the body but the clinician will interpret it as visceral pain (Hammer & McPhee, 2018; Jameson et al., 2018). The danger or risk with these faulty differential diagnosis processes is that a misdiagnosis may cause the real problem to advance to appoint where it leads to the mortality of the patient when discovered too late. The only benefit is that the process at least gives the patient the benefit of underlying problems being possibly discovered during the exercise.
References
Ball, J., Dains, J.E., Flynn, J.A., Solomon, B.S., & Stewart, R.W. (2019). Seidel’s guide to physical examination: An interprofessional approach, 9th ed. Elsevier.
Bickley, L.S. (2017). Bates’ guide to physical examination and history taking, 12th ed. Wolters Kluwer.
Cook, C.E., & Décary, S. (2019). Higher order thinking about differential diagnosis. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy, 24(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjpt.2019.01.010
First, M.B. (2022). DSM-5 handbook of differential diagnosis. American Psychiatric Publications.
Hammer, D.G., & McPhee, S.J. (2018). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine, 8th ed. McGraw-Hill Education.
Jameson, J.L., Fauci, A.S., Kasper, D.L., Hauser, S.L., Longo, D.L., & Loscalzo, J. (Eds) (2018). Harrison’s principles of internal medicine, 20th ed. McGraw-Hill Education.
Differential Diagnosis Essay Example
