ABC of Emergency Differential Diagnosis (eBook)

Francis Morris, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, UK. Lead editor of ABC of Clinical Electrocardiography. He is the Clinical Director of the Chest Pain Unit in Sheffiled and has written four book on aspects of emergency medicine. He is a regional representative of the British Association of Emergency Medicine. His main research interests are the management of chest pain, DVT and pulmonary embolus. Alan Fletcher, B Med Sci(Hons), MB ChB, MRCP, FFAEM. Appointed Consultant in Acute General Medicine and Emergency Medicine in 2004, Alan has clinical responsibilities in the Emergency Department and Medical Assessment Units. He is Sheffield Teaching Hospitals' Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine, Training Programme Director for Acute Medicine in the South Yorkshire Deanery, and Foundation Programme Director. Apart from an active teaching responsibility, he has research interests in the assessment of Nurse Practitioner competence and the value of acute medical admission.

Contributors vii

Preface viii

1 Unconsciousness and Coma 1
Roger Dalton

2 Calf Pain 5
Francis Morris and Alan Fletcher

3 Chest Pain - Cardiac 9
Nicki Doddridge

4 High Fever 13
Rachel Foster

5 Vaginal Bleeding 18
Sian Ireland and Karen Selby

6 Transient Weakness 22
Carole Gavin

7 Abdominal Pain - Epigastric 26
Duncan Drury

8 Acute Headache 30
Tom Locker

9 Acutely Painful Joint 34
Rachel Tattersall

10 Chest Pain - Pleuritic 37
Claire Gardner and Kevin Jones

11 Dizziness 41
Scott Davison

12 The Intoxicated Patient 48
Sue Croft

13 The Shocked Patient 52
Arun Chaudhuri

14 Palpitations 57
Charles Heatley

15 Low Back Pain 60
Richard Kendall

16 Acute Confusion 64
Steve Goodacre

17 Shortness of Breath 68
Kevin Jones and Claire Gardner

18 Collapse of Unknown Cause 72
Peter Lawson

19 Abdominal Pain 76
Suzanne Mason and Alastair Pickering

Index 81