Preface

The Guide to Diagnostic Tests, Seventh edition, is intended to serve as a reference manual for medical, nursing, and other health professional students, house officers, and practicing physicians, physician assistants, 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, common laboratory tests (chemistry, hematology, coagulation, immunology, microbiology, drug monitoring, 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 diagnostic algorithms, and nomograms and reference material.

This book enables readers to understand frequently used diagnostic tests and diagnostic approaches to common disease states.

• Over 350 tests presented in a concise, consistent, and readable format.

• Full coverage of more than two dozen new laboratory tests and diagnostic algorithms.

• Expanded content regarding molecular and genetic tests, including pharmacogenetic tests.

• Full section on diagnostic imaging.

• Sections on basic electrocardiography and 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.

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.

Guide to Diagnostic Tests is divided into 10 sections:

1. Diagnostic Testing & Medical Decision Making

2. Point-of-Care Testing & Provider-Performed Microscopy

3. Common Laboratory Tests: Selection & Interpretation

4. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring & Pharmacogenetic Testing: Principles & Test Interpretation

5. Microbiology: Test Selection

6. Diagnostic Imaging: Test Selection & Interpretation

7. Basic Electrocardiography & Echocardiography

8. Diagnostic Tests in Differential Diagnosis

9. Diagnostic Algorithms

10. Nomograms & Reference Material

1. More than two dozen new or substantially revised clinical laboratory test entries, including: beta-D-glucan, BRCA1/BRCA2 genotyping, calreticulin (CALR) mutation, cystatin C, D-dimer, heparin anti-Xa assay, hepatitis B e antigen/antibody (HBeAg/Ab), hepatitis C virus genotyping, hepatitis C viral load, new HIV screening algorithm, HLA-B51 typing, IgG subclasses, kappa and lambda free light chains with ratio, lipoprotein(a), lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), procollagen type-1 intact N-terminal propeptide (PINP), ribosomal DNA (16S rDNA) sequencing, and syphilis tests (new algorithm).

2. Microbiologic tests for emerging (new) and reemerging pathogens and infectious agents, including Chikungunya virus, Cryptococcus gattii, dengue virus, Ebola virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), and Zika virus.

3. More than one dozen new or substantially revised tables or algorithms concerning diagnostic approaches to genetic diseases (molecular diagnostic testing), prenatal diagnostic testing, blood component therapy, adrenocortical insufficiency, inherited bleeding disorders, jaundice, lymphocytosis, monoarthritis, pulmonary embolism, syphilis testing, and thrombocytosis.

4. New reference materials displaying the complement system and steroidogenesis pathways.

Medical students will find the concise summary of diagnostic laboratory, microbiologic, and imaging studies, and of electrocardiography and echocardiography in this convenient reference book of great help during clinical ward rotations. Busy house officers, physicians' assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians (internal medicine and family medicine, etc.) 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 to Diagnostic Tests valuable for understanding the use of laboratory tests in patient management.

The editors acknowledge the invaluable editorial contributions of William M. Detmer, MD, and Tony M. Chou, MD, to the first through third editions, and Michael Pignone, MD, to the third through sixth 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, sixth, and this seventh 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 the sixth and seventh editions, 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.