Diagnosis of exclusion

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A diagnosis of exclusion or by exclusion (per exclusionem) is a diagnosis of a medical condition reached by a process of elimination, which may be necessary if presence cannot be established with complete confidence from history, examination or testing. Such elimination of other reasonable possibilities is a major component in performing a differential diagnosis.

Contents

Diagnosis by exclusion tends to occur where scientific knowledge is scarce, specifically where the means to verify a diagnosis by an objective method is absent. As a specific diagnosis cannot be confirmed, a fall back position is to exclude that group of known causes that may cause a similar clinical presentation.

The largest category of diagnosis by exclusion is seen among psychiatric disorders where the presence of physical or organic disease must be excluded as a prerequisite for making a functional diagnosis.

Examples

An example of such a diagnosis is "fever of unknown origin": to explain the cause of elevated temperature the most common causes of unexplained fever (infection, neoplasm, or collagen vascular disease) must be ruled out.

Other examples include:

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primary polydipsia</span> Medical condition

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada disease</span> Medical condition

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The term functional somatic syndrome (FSS) refers to a group of chronic diagnoses with no identifiable organic cause. This term was coined by Hemanth Samkumar. It encompasses disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic widespread pain, temporomandibular disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, lower back pain, tension headache, atypical face pain, non-cardiac chest pain, insomnia, palpitation, dyspepsia and dizziness. General overlap exists between this term, somatization and somatoform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mueller–Weiss syndrome</span> Osteonecrotic disease of the foot

Mueller–Weiss syndrome, also known as Mueller–Weiss disease, is a rare idiopathic degenerative disease of the adult navicular bone characterized by progressive collapse and fragmentation, leading to mid- and hindfoot pain and deformity. It is most commonly seen in females, ages 40–60. Characteristic imaging shows lateral navicular collapse. This disease had been historically considered to be a form of adult onset osteonecrosis, with blood flow cutoff to the navicular.

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