Questions tagged [diagnostics]
The diagnostics tag has no usage guidance.
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Why are diagnostics based on the microbiome so slow to adopt?
Edit 2023/09/06: Many comments so far raise the fact that we can't tell whether there is causation or correlation between an illness and the corresponding microbiome of the patient. My point isn't to ...
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Does direct microscopic examination help detect contamination during sample collection in clinical bacteriology?
Background information
Direct microscopic examination (or Direct smear) typically refer to microscopic examination of a specimen before any culture or inoculation is performed.
Question
Can direct ...
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Can the presence of Extended Spectrum β-Lactamases affects the action of AmpC beta-lactamases?
Double disk synergy test (DDST):
This method uses the cephalosporin discs and clavulanic disc alone.
The principle is applying the cephalosporin discs next to the
clavulanic disc with a distance of ...
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Does this paper report miscalculated metrics?
During a literature search I stumbled upon this paper, which evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography for the detection of gallstones (compared to the gold standard cholecystectomy).
Their ...
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How accurate is reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) to predict whether a basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is infiltrative or superficial?
Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a noninvasive imaging technique that has been used to diagnose basal cell carcinoma (BCC). How accurate is RCM to predict whether a BCC is infiltrative or ...
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How are the FPR and FNR estimated for a new diagnostic test?
Let's consider a case of a test for presence/absence of a viral infection. When we have certainty as to whether a specific individual is carrying the virus, it is easy to estimate the False Positive ...
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Can someone help figure out my shoulder problem? [closed]
I'm not really into medicine or anything, just have a quick question. So since I was younger, I had this shoulder cyst thing since maybe 1st grade or something and nobody could diagnose it. It ...
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Can tablets containing iron or high fibre food trigger anxiety and hypermetabolism?
Is there any well-understood way or any info, in the medical literature, regarding the possibility of iron tablets and high fibre foods triggering anxiety, panic attacks and hypermetabolism ...
user20181
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How accurate is dermoscopy to predict if a skin lesion is a basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and if it is, whether it is superficial or aggressive form? [closed]
https://dermnetnz.org/cme/dermoscopy-course/dermoscopy-of-basal-cell-carcinoma/ mentions that one can use dermoscopy to diagnose basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and their subtype (nodular, superficial, etc....
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Are H. Pylori infections the most common cause of both gastric and duodenal ulcers? Is the urea breath test a useful diagnostic for both kinds?
H. pylori infections are a frequent cause of peptic ulcers, and a positive result from a urea breath test indicating the likely presence of H. pilori may be followed by treatment that includes one or ...
user16606
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How do you tell a brain-dead patient from a living one?
One theme that's been explored somewhat in popular culture is brain death, and the interesting dynamics of what separates dead from alive.
In chemistry, death is defined as the loss of the ability to ...
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What does it mean, that an epidemic curve is truncated at the level of diagnostic efficiency?
Recently I've heard in one interview with a Professor of Epidemiology, that in my country the epidemic curve of COVID-19 is not flattened (contrary to popular opinion), but rather is truncated at the ...
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What diseases can be identified by some defined algorithm?
I'm looking for some examples about diseases that can be identified by some equations? I mean something like, that if some person have this overweight, this age, these medical findings that means that ...
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Meaning of colored ring around iris
There seem to be various conditions that affect the color of the outer edge of the iris, such as:
Fleischer ring - Wikipedia
Arcus senilis
Kayser–Fleischer ring
Limbal ring
and I imagine there are ...
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Why HIV Dna PCR is done for children born to HIV + mothers and not RNA PCR
I am curious to know why my text emphasize that diagnostic test of choice as gold standard is HIV RNA PCR, but in children of age 6 weeks of age HIV DNA PCR is done instead.
what I think is that it ...
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Are there any "markers of low immunity" in people without any genetic immune disease?
Are there any blood or other tests that can reveal the immune status of people who have frequent infections but do not seem to have any genetic immunodeficiency disease?
Merck Manuals mentions many ...
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How to evaluate the results of diagnostic studies: how to prove that new method is better than gold standard?
I understand how to evaluate therapeutic studies: basically you compare the results of two groups that were chosen randomly. One group gets the new drug, the other group gets the placebo (or the drug ...
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What is the umbrella term for examination/diagnostics using tools, equipment and instruments?
There's a Russian healthcare term инструментальная диагностика - instrumental diagnostics (I'm not sure whether the translation provided by Multitran is really commonly used in English).
It covers ...
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When is an MRI also an MRN?
I'm not a medical professional. I have just noticed the mention of MRN - Magnetic Resonance Neurography as a diagnostic tool for nerve issues.
Now, I know that MRN is essentially a kind of MR ...
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Looking for an ECG anomaly detection tool
In a few months I will be conducting a study where we take participents ECGs and try to measure stress levels from that using machine learning. I am also involved in pre-processing the data, meaning ...
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What is Clinical Decision Support (CDS)? [closed]
What is Clinical Decision Support (CDS)?
What is the official reasoning behind making CDS mandatory for Electronic Health Record (EHR) applications?
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Beyond correlation, why is Frank's sign significant or not?
The Wikipedia lists Frank's sign as
Frank's sign is a diagonal crease in the ear lobe extending from the tragus across the lobule to the rear edge of the auricle. The sign is named after Sanders T. ...
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Is the Zimnitsky Urine Test used in the West at all? What tests are used instead?
The Zimnitsky Urine Test (Проба по Зимницкому) is a test used in Russia to assess the kidneys' capacity for concentration of urine.
Here's one English-language description (choose "select all" ...
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How to determine at what percentage an organ is functioning vs. what is expected?
Example:
Patient presents acute renal failure that has rapid progression.
Patient asks upon consultation “At what percent are my kidneys functioning to what they should be”. Physician responds with “...
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What might be the cause of this unexplained, prolonged groin pain symptom [closed]
Imagine a medical case of someone experiencing a prolonged, unexplained pain symptom in his lower left abdomen and groin area. Feeling the worst when sitting down, but much better standing up or lying ...
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How is the workflow of physical examination's documentation in the USA exactly?
e.g. do you use paperforms, EHR masks? Do you type directly into a physician letter?
In Germany we use mostly a paper form in the first place and afterwards we document the results into a report. You ...
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Diagnose angina (chest pain) by taking Nitroglycerin
Since nitroglycerin relieves the symptoms of angina (chest tightness, heavy feeling), why not to diagnose angina with Nitroglycerin?
If the pain goes away upon taking Nitroglycerin then you have ...
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Why is lactate dehydrogenase used to differentiate exudates from transudates?
When differentiate transudates and exudates, the ration between effusion LDH and serum LDH is used:
They are termed exudates if ... the pleural fluid to serum ratio of LDH (LDHR) is > 0.6, and ...
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How is myocarditis diagnosed?
How is inflammation of the hearth muscle (myocarditis) diagnosed? What are typical symptoms? What is it commonly mixed up with? How do you differentiate reliably?
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Why have I been fatigued/exhausted for the past month? [closed]
For the past month, I've been feeling extremely fatigued, exhausted, out of breath and even light headed! I know I've been sleeping as usual. I can't even bend over, lift things, I can even exercise ...
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Elbow Ligament/Tendon Injury Diagnosis-Aid?
When a patient comes into the office with what seems like an injury to the ligaments/tendons around the elbow, what are the "exercises" that the physician uses in order to identify or pinpoint the ...
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What are the online blood testing services that allow to pick and choose exactly what test you want?
I know there are now several competitive online blood test companies that offer a menu of bundled blood test services in the US. I am looking for a US based service that would disaggregate their ...
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Does the number of teslas matter when evaluating a tendinopathy with an MRI scanner?
The number of teslas in MRI scanners vary between 0.2 and 7 teslas, and sometimes even up to 10.5 Teslas (Siemens MAGNETOM 10.5T) and 11.7 teslas (Siemens MAGNETOM 11.7T).
Does the number of teslas ...
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Explanation of normal CRP during neutrophilia?
Let us assume we have a patient with this history and let us try to explain his/her normal CRP values on the end of this post given the fact of commorbid high fever and neutrophilia.
The questions to ...
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Uremic encephalopathy, diabetes, and halucinations
I'm in highschool, interested in patient diagnosis and treatment and that's why I'm asking this question.
I've recently heard about a patient with end-stage uremic encephalopathy and diabets. He has ...
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How to know whether an inflammation is present in a tendinopathy?
I wonder how to know whether an inflammation is present in a tendinopathy. In other words, how to distinguish a tendinosis from a tendonitis.
http://physical-therapy.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/...
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Omics vs Classic Blood Sample
It seems to me that omics data offers much more information than a classic biochemical blood analysis does. Are there more features that can be known from a patient blood sample using omics data in ...
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How effective/accurate are pill cameras for diagnosing Crohn's disease?
How effective/accurate is wireless endoscopy (pill camera) for diagnosing Crohn's disease?
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Is fecal occult blood test (EZ Detect) effective if urine is in the toilet bowl?
The patient used an EZ Detect fecal occult blood test. The test was positive. She saw a tiny blue circle on the piece of paper indicating trace of blood in her stool. But, she indicated there was ...
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How is pain measured?
Patients are often asked to rate their level of pain. Usually, I have found that these questions come without instructions as to what constitutes the maximum on this scale (maximum pain you can ...
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MRI scans for diagnosing Crohn's disease?
How effective/accurate are MRI scans of the small intestine for diagnosing Crohn's disease?
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What are the differential diagnoses of increased ferritin?
What are the possible causes of increased ferritin in a 69 year old man who is otherwise normal and who is not anemic?
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Myelocytes present in CBC
0.1 X10E3/uL Myelocytes
It says the normal range is 0. Is there something wrong with having that many myelocytes?
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What could cause transient binocular vision loss? [duplicate]
I have episodes of transient binocular vision loss. The progression of an episode is very predictable: I start noticing some letters missing in text. Slowly, it evolves to a point half of my vision is ...
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Identifying an anatomical cause for an epicondylitis
One possible cause for an epicondylitis is anatomy (see the 4 references below, non-epicondylitis specific). How to identify whether anatomy is the cause of a lateral epicondylitis?
Holston Valley ...
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Munchausen syndrome by proxy, caregiver and care receiver relation
Does Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy only apply to a parent (caregiver) and his/her child (care receiver)? Or does it apply to any relation between a caregiver and a care receiver with that kind of ...
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How do you monitor possible Lyme disease after a treated infection?
A patient was diagnosed (through blood tests) with Lyme Disease after a tick bite and treated with first oral and then intravenous antibiotics, apparently successfully. The patient saw the physician ...
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Does FPIES ever present with widespread non-specific intolerance?
FPIES (Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome) is a non-IgE mediated response to proteins. We have an infant that has had classic severe acute FPIES reaction to poultry. In addition, every food ...
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What are the dangers of screening tests in overdiagnosis and overtreatment?
I have recently seen a number of articles in the lay public print on overdiagnosis, for example in the New York Times, Study Points to Overdiagnosis of Thyroid Cancer.
In the article, they state that ...
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Is herpes simplex/cold sore on the thigh considered a sexually transmitted disease?
When I was a kid I got a cold sore / herpes simplex (1, I think) on the thigh. As far as I know, I haven't had any cold sores on the actual genital area, and it's been a while. I wonder if this is ...
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