Purpose
The
Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, sixth edition, is intended to
serve as a pocket reference manual for medical, nursing, and other health
professional students, house officers, and practicing physicians and nurses.
It is a quick reference guide to the selection and interpretation of
commonly used diagnostic tests, including laboratory procedures in the
clinical setting, laboratory tests (chemistry, hematology, immunology,
microbiology, pharmacogenetic, and molecular and genetic testing),
diagnostic imaging tests (plain radiography, CT, MRI, and ultrasonography),
electrocardiography, echocardiography, and the use of tests in differential
diagnosis, helpful algorithms, and nomograms and reference material.
This book enables readers to understand commonly used
diagnostic tests and diagnostic approaches to common disease states.
Outstanding Features
• Over 450 tests presented in a concise, consistent, and readable
format.
• Full coverage of more than two dozen new laboratory
tests.
• Expanded content regarding molecular and genetic tests,
including pharmacogenetic tests.
• New section on basic
echocardiography.
• Updated and additional microbiologic coverage
of emerging (new) and reemerging pathogens and infectious agents.
• Fields covered: internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, neurology,
and obstetrics and gynecology.
• Costs and risks of various
procedures and tests.
• Full literature citations with PubMed
(PMID) numbers included for each reference.
• An index for quick
reference on the back cover.
Organization
This pocket reference manual is not intended to include all diagnostic tests
or disease states. The authors have selected the tests and diseases that are
most common and relevant to the general practice of medicine.
The
Guide is divided into 10 sections:
1. Diagnostic Testing and Medical Decision Making
2.
Point-of-Care Testing and Provider-Performed Microscopy
3. Common
Laboratory Tests: Selection and Interpretation
4. Therapeutic Drug
Monitoring and Pharmacogenetic Testing
5. Microbiology: Test Selection
6. Diagnostic Imaging: Test Selection and Interpretation
7. Basic
Electrocardiography and Echocardiography
8. Diagnostic Tests in
Differential Diagnosis
9. Diagnostic Algorithms
10. Nomograms and
Reference Material
New to This Edition
1. More than two dozen new or substantially revised clinical laboratory test
entries, including: urine
albumin, beta-hCG, CCP antibody, celiac disease
serology, serum C-telopeptide and urine N-telopeptide,
dehydroepiandrosterone,
estradiol,
glucagon, hepatitis E, intrinsic factor
blocking antibody, urine
iodine, islet cell antibody, kappa and lambda light
chains, osteocalcin, pancreatic elastase, Quantiferon TB, somatostatin, and
thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin.
2. Microbiologic tests for emerging
(new) and reemerging pathogens and infectious agents.
3. More than two
dozen new or substantially revised tables and algorithms concerning
diagnostic approaches to: amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea; ascites and ascitic
fluid profiles in various disease states; autoantibodies; molecular
diagnostic testing in various genetic diseases; common serologic test
patterns in hepatitis B virus infection; hemochromatosis;
hyperaldosteronism; female infertility; classification and immunophenotyping
of leukemias and lymphomas; severity index for acute pancreatitis; pulmonary
embolism, including the revised Geneva Score for pulmonary embolism
probability assessment, including a prognostic model (PESI Score) and risk
stratification; clinical and laboratory diagnosis in untreated patients with
syphilis; genetics and laboratory characteristics of thalassemia syndromes;
summary of blood component therapy in transfusion; and diagnostic evaluation
of valvular heart disease.
Intended Audience
Medical students will find the concise summary of diagnostic laboratory,
microbiologic, and imaging studies, and of electrocardiography and
echocardiography in this pocket-sized book of great help during clinical
ward rotations.
Busy house officers, physician's
assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians will find the clear
organization and current literature references useful in devising proper
patient management.
Nurses and other health
practitioners will find the format and scope of the
Guide valuable
for understanding the use of laboratory tests in patient management.
Acknowledgments
The editors acknowledge the invaluable editorial contributions of William M.
Detmer, MD, and Tony M. Chou, MD, to the first three editions of this book.
In addition, the late G. Thomas Evans, Jr., MD, contributed the
electrocardiography section of Chapter 7 for the second and third editions.
In the fourth, fifth, and this sixth edition, this section has been revised
by Fred M. Kusumoto, MD.
We thank Jane Jang, BS, MT (ASCP) SM, for her
revision of the microbiology chapter in the fifth edition. In this sixth
edition, the chapter has been substantially revised by Barbara Haller, MD,
PhD.
We thank our associate authors for their contributions to this
book and are grateful to the many clinicians, residents, and students who
have made useful suggestions.
We welcome comments and recommendations
from our readers for future editions.
Diana
Nicoll, MD, PhD, MPA
Chuanyi Mark Lu, MD
Michael Pignone, MD, MPH
Stephen J. McPhee, MD