Backing up the pioneering medical researchers and experi- menters are the phalanxes and cohorts of practising clinicians in district general hospitals and in general practice who may have to implement and apply any breakthroughs and advances in practical and realistic terms. This they cannot, and should not, be expected to do without careful consideration and analysis. It is essential, therefore, to have regular reviews of the growing points of medicine which are constructively critical as well as being enthusiastic and which can present the issues and implications clearly and fairly to...

Why yet another book on clinical diagnosis? The profusion ofmedical text booksfor studentsand young postgraduates is known to all ofus, and so also is the time-consuming and frequently frus- trating search in these books for the relevant facts we need, so often sub- merged in a mass of information which we do not really require. The traditional textbook that most clinicians have used in their training may well be written in the leisurely, discursive and unstructured style much loved by our teachers of old, but perhaps out of place in modern medical education where knowledge is so rapidly...

Herewe offer anew approach to understanding and managing common medical conditions. With the needs of our readers in mind we present clearer, more extensive and more expansive views on them. Traditional medical textbooks are wordy tomes with well worn patterns dealing in set order with 'causes, symptoms and signs, diagnosis and treatment'. They offer formal instant snapshots of diseases. We have devised an economic synoptic style, and we have endeavoured to give acomprehensive and an on-going long term movepicture ofeach condition and to relate this to the analysisofsymptoms and signs, to...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines diagnosis as: 'Identification of a disease by careful investigation of its symptoms and history' . Regrettably, the value of the history in the diagnosis of disease often seems to be neglected in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. The considerable advances in medical technology have made it easy to carry out a multiplicity of tests. As a result, there is frequently an unfortunate tendency to rely on the results of tests before decisions are taken on diagnosis and treatment, even though such tests are often of limited value in the...