Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. The conclusion reached through that process is also called a diagnosis.
The term "diagnostic criteria" designates the combination of symptoms which allows the doctor to ascertain the diagnosis of the respective disease.
Typically, someone with abnormal symptoms will consult a physician, who will then obtain a history of their pre ...
The history of medical diagnosis began in earnest from the enlightened days of Hippocrates in ancient Greece but is far from perfect despite the enormous bounty of information made available by medical research including the sequencing of the human genome. The practice of diagnosis continues to be dominated by theories set down in the early 1900s.
Diagnosis - Ancient Greece.
Over two thousand years ago, Hippocrates recorded the association between disease and heredity. In similar fashion, ...
History taking is a fluid process that adapts to the information as it is presented. Almost invariably the patient presents with a complaint. Even the unconscious patient presents with the implicit complaint of being unconscious. This presenting complaint leads to the formation of hypotheses. Rather than consider the myriad of diseases that could afflict the patient, the physician narrows down the possibilities to those conditions likely to account for the presenting complaint. The history taking then proceeds to test these hypotheses, often ...
